Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Raffique seen during a visit to the under-construction hospital. PHOTO: ONLINE
LAHORE: The construction of a 500-bed tertiary care hospital in Gujranwala is a part of the government’s efforts to provide the best possible health services to the masses, Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Raffique said during a visit to the under-construction hospital on Sunday. The estimated cost of the project was Rs3.9 billion, he said.
Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Secretary Najam Ahmad Shah had accompanied Raffique on the visit.
Gujranwala Medical College Principal Aftab Mohsin briefed Raffique about the project. “The hospital will be a six-storey building comprising three blocks. The total covered area would be 360,000 square feet.”
The principal said that the hospital would be built on six acres. A separate complex with 10 operation theatres was a part of the plan for the hospital.
He said the hospital would provide all tertiary care medical facilities including paeds medicines, paeds surgery, general surgery, medicines, ENT, ophthalmology, pathology labs, diagnostic facilities, organ transplant, cardiac unit, ICU, CCU and dialysis facilities for kidney patients.
Shah stressed the need for expediting construction work so it could open for patients by the end of 2017. He said that the government would provide the required funds for the project.
The principal said that Rs1.4 billion would be spent on civil work and Rs1.7 billion on purchasing medical equipment and other diagnostic machineries.
Raffique said the Gujranwala Tertiary Hospital would be a milestone in providing people the latest health facilities. The latest tertiary care facilities would be available for people of Gujranwala division and neighbouring districts, he said. “This could help reduce the work load of tertiary care hospitals of Lahore.”
‘Improve service delivery’
Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Raffique held a monthly monitoring meeting on Sunday with executive district officers, among others, at the directorate general health services office.
He directed the health EDOs to supervise staff monitoring in order to improve service. Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan, Health Services Director General Mukhtar Hussain Syed, programme managers, health EDOs of all districts, members of the Chief Minister Roadmap team, and representatives of the UNICEF and the WHO participated in the conference.
The meeting took note of districts with poor results in the anti-polio vaccination campaign held in May and asked the relevant EDOs to address the problems.
Raffique directed officials to ensure enhanced surveillance of dengue and polio in Rawalpindi.
Jan Khan said that the Health Department was working hard to revamp DHQs and THQs in the province. He directed EDOs to identify areas of improvement and identify the staff in respective districts. He said the recruitment process would be made more efficient with the introduction of a testing service.
The Health DG said there had been a recent outbreak of measles in certain districts that shared borders with other provinces. “We cannot afford to have an outbreak of measles in the Punjab,” he said. “What we need is special measures end the epidemic.”
The chief minister’s roadmap team identified an increase in vaccination coverage as a major milestone and showed the performance of all districts. The team said vaccinator attendance had gone up significantly and the Punjab had made considerable progress within a short span of time. He said the Neilsen Survey had identified Punjab’s routine immunisation coverage at 86 per cent.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2016.
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