Medical facilities: Islamabad to have cancer hospital this year

CADD minister says special education institutions being upgraded

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Tariq Fazal Chaudhry informed the National Assembly on Wednesday that the federal capital will have a state-of-the-art cancer hospital during the current fiscal year.

In a response to Sheikh Salahuddin’s question regarding the availability of medical facilities in the federal government hospitals, the minister said that a sum has been allocated in the current budget for the construction of a cancer hospital in Islamabad. He said that sufficient medical facilities were available for patients visiting the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Polyclinic and the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM).



Chaudhry said that Pims was catering to a large number of patients from Islamabad, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Fata, Gilgit-Biltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and upper Punjab with a daily average of 10,000 patients.

He said the hospital also has a free-of-cost diagnostic facilities such as X-ray, lab, ECG, ETT, EEG and other tests facilities which not only cater to the public but also to government servants and their dependent family members, ambassadors of foreign countries, judges and parliamentarians. Deserving patients also have access to these diagnostic facilities, the minister said.



He said that 2.54 acres has been bought for the extension of Polyclinic and funds have been allocated for the payment of the land, the CADD minister said.

He said that the NIRM’s outpatient department caters to more than 400 physically challenged patients per day with 92 per cent indoor bed occupancy per month.

Chaudhry also informed the National Assembly that Rs100 million has been allocated for infrastructure the development and to up grade 11 special education centres and institutions in the federal capital.



Answering a question of Saida Begum regarding the steps taken by the government for providing education and imparting training to special persons, the minister said that more attention was being paid to special education and special buses would be provided to these organisations to facilitate special children. During the last two years, he said, 1,576 special children were provided medical rehabilitation, educational and training facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2016.