CM launches Rs15b worth of schemes

Multan, Faisalabad, Gujrat hospitals to get modern equipment

LAHORE:

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi launched healthcare projects worth more than Rs15 billion on Tuesday. As per an official announcement, a total of Rs26 billion has been allocated for projects to provide quality healthcare facilities in the province.

The CM laid the foundation stone of a number of projects and noted that the provision of Rs26 billion rupees to improve the health facilities was a record. A cyber knife machine would be provided to the Nishtar Medical University in Multan at a cost of Rs1.2 billion and the Allied Hospital in Faisalabad had been provided Rs1.25 billion to treat cancer patients with a linear accelerator machine, he said on the occasion.

A linear accelerator machine will also be installed in the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital in Gujrat at a cost of Rs1.3 billion. The CM announced that a new cardiology hospital equipped with modern machines would be built in the province.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Cardiology in Wazirabad is being upgraded with 200 additional beds at accost of Rs5 billion. Gamma camera electrophysiology equipment and transit time flowmeter are being provided for heart patients and land has been acquired for the expansion of the institute for Rs385 million. The chief minister announced that a pharmacy was being established in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology to supply medicines to the patients.

Installation of a CT angiography machine and a thallium scan camera in the institute will cost Rs500 million, while the same for the Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology in Bahawalpur will cost Rs700 million. The Chaudhry Anwar Ali Cheema Institute of Cardiology is being established in Sargodha at an estimated cost of Rs6 billion.

The mother and child block of 200 beds will be made functional at Lady Willingdon Hospital at a cost of Rs5 billion. Another Rs500 million has been allocated to acquire land for the children's hospital in Gujrat, the CM said and added that a modern radiotherapy unit was being established in the Children's Hospital in Lahore with Rs2 billion.

A medicine store is being constructed in the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital in Gujrat with Rs390 million, while modern operation theatres, a 10-bed intensive care unit and a laundry will also be constructed. The CM said the old block of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital would be upgraded at a cost of Rs200 million. Residential flats will also be constructed for the hospital's supervisory staff. He said the Bashir Ahmad Auditorium had been built in the Punjab Institute of Neurosciences with Rs57.5 million.