Revamping standards: Doctors to be placed across DHQ hospitals

Dept to extend additional monthly stipend

LAHORE: Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department Secretary Najam Shah said on Tuesday that under-training postgraduate doctors who have completed two years of training would be posted across DHQ hospitals for three months on rotation.

Shah said the initiative would ensure the provision of quality healthcare to people across the district-level. The secretary said the three-month timeframe would be considered part of their training.

He said the department would provide them with an additional Rs25,000 monthly stipend as an incentive.

The secretary said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif attached great importance to improving quality and coverage of healthcare services. Under the programme, he said, 10 postgraduate residents working across teaching hospitals in the anaesthesia, general surgery, gynaecology, paediatrics, paediatric surgery, radiology, pathology and medicine departments would be
placed across select DHQ hospitals.

Shah said the doctors from facilities including the Fatima Jinnah Medical University/ Sir Ganga Ram Hospital would be placed at the Sheikhupura DHQ Hospital, from the Services Institute of Medical Sciences/Services Hospital to the Nankana Sahib DHQ Hospital, from Allama Iqbal Medical College/Jinnah Hospital to the Okara DHQ Hospital, from Multan’s Nishtar Medical College/Nishtar Hospital to the Khanewal DHQ Hospital, from Ameeruddin Medical College/Lahore General Hospital to the Kasur DHQ Hospital and Rawalpindi Medical College/Benazir Bhutto Hospital to the Attock DHQ Hospital.

He said the primary objective behind the initiative was to ensure the provision of quality healthcare and consultation services by specialists to people resident across remote districts.

Shah said all those concerned had been instructed to ensure the initiative’s implementation in letter and spirit in the best interest of the public.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.