‘RIUT will be made functional from April 15’

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said on Wednesday that the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant (RIUT) would be made functional from April 15.

Addressing a press conference at the Rawalpindi Medical University, she said that initially, the emergency, outpatient’s department and dialysis centre at the RIUT would be functional from April 15".

The fifth wave of the coronavirus has been contained and a few patients of Covid-19 admitted to the RIUT have been shifted to the Benazir Bhutto General Hospital and the Holy Family Hospital to make the RIUT functional as soon as possible to provide treatment to patients facing acute kidney and renal diseases.

She said that up to Rs31,000 stipend will be given to the students, who will get admission to nursing colleges. She said that all nursing schools have been turned into nursing colleges so that more opportunities could be created for further nursing education.

In the same way, she said, the emphasis would be given to the education and capacity building of midwives so that they could also progress by seeking quality education.

She said that 48,000 doctors and paramedical staff have been recruited at tehsil level hospitals. She further said that project concept I (PC-I) of the Dental College in Rawalpindi has been approved by the government.

She further said that nine new mother and child (paternal) hospitals were being built in Punjab. She said that a plan has been prepared under which a team of doctors from medical universities of Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad will visit rural areas and examine patients and those with complicated diseases would be referred to central hospitals for the best possible treatment.

Dr Rashid said that the previous government destroyed the health department. She said that only two per cent of complaints were being noticed in the insaf health card.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2022.