PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE: Not only the opposition, but even members of the treasury benches strongly opposed the ruling party’s claims over progress in the health sector.
However, many of the members left the house right after giving their speeches and this left only 11 MPAs, forcing the speaker to adjourn the session till 10am on Thursday (today).
Legislators of the treasury benches said the health sectors of rural areas were being ignored. Mian Naseer, Muhammad Arshad Malik, Dr Najma Afzal, Mian Muhammad Rafique and others said there were no satisfactory measures taken on that level.
Naseer said there was a deficiency of medical equipment at hospitals and these facilities are also overcrowded. He added people of rural areas would not need to travel to the cities if concrete measures were taken.
He lashed out at opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, saying his sympathies were with doctors who went on strike and left patients to die at hospitals. Muhammad Arshad Malik said even dogs had found homes at district level hospitals.
Sahiwal district was given five ventilators, but they were not functioning from day one, the MPA said. Naseer urged Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif not to ignore the masses of rural areas.
The opposition leader said the government had caught companies dealing in unregistered stents and this was causing immense difficulties for cardiac patients. He said that the sincerity and of the government could be gauged from the fact that there was not a single ventilator in district hospitals of Kasur, Mandi Bahaudin, Bhakar, Sialkot, Khaniwal, Lodhran and others. He said that the government’s plan to run hospitals under a private-public partnership will be the last nail in the coffin of the masses.
Asif Mehmood, a PTI legislator, told the house his own tale of when he visited a government hospital. The MPA said he spent more than an hour after getting a slip and was sent from pillar to post at the medical facility.
He said that he was standing in the emergency when he was administered a drip and there was no bed for him.
Provincial Minister Primary and Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazeer said the government was working day and night to improve the health sector. He said that around 41 hospitals would be revamped by June 2017, while the rest will be completed by January 2018.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2017.
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