A healthy boost: Construction of kidney, liver Institute well on time

Work on first phase to be completed by November and inaugurated in December

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique said construction work on the Pakistan Kidney, Liver Transplant and Research Institute (PKLI) was continuing according to the prescribed timeline. He said the first phase of the project would be completed by December 2017.

He minister said the total cost of the project was Rs20 billion of which Rs6 billion would be spent by the end of the month.

Salman was addressing the media after presiding over a meeting of the steering committee on PKLI at the site office on Bedian Road. PKLI President Dr Saeed Akhtar, IDAP General Manager Naveed Tariq, Health Department Chief Planning Officer Abdul Haq Bhatti and officers of P&D, Sui Gas, WASA, LESCO, Finance Department and other concerned agencies attended the meeting.

The IDAP GM briefed the meeting about the pace of work and progress on the procurement of biomedical equipment. He said the construction work of the first phase, under Package-A of PKLI, would be completed by the end of November and inaugurated on December 25, 2017.

He informed said an advertisement for the procurement of medical equipment has been sent. The minister added procurement orders would be issued in August.

Arrangements for landscaping and tree plantation also came up for discussion. Earlier, Salman Rafique distributed certificates among medical officers who completed their training in the hepatitis prevention and treatment clinic of PKLI. As many as 68 medical officers were recruited by the Primary & Secondary Health Department for posting in hepatitis clinics established across the province. While talking to doctors, Salman said that they should not consider their posting as just a job.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2017.