Lack of burn care lamented

LAHORE:

Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Imran Nazir on Thursday admitted on the floor of the Punjab Assembly that public hospitals across the province were facing a critical shortage of burn treatment facilities and specialists, leaving patients with severe burn injuries struggling to access proper care.
Responding to questions raised during the assembly session, the minister acknowledged that Punjab lacked adequate burn specialists despite having relatively better numbers of neurologists and gynecologists.
He said the government had now started working on increasing the number of trained burn doctors and planned to establish fully functional burn units at district headquarters hospitals equipped with specialist staff and modern facilities.
The issue surfaced during a wider debate on the condition of public healthcare facilities and medicine shortages in government hospitals.
Opposition lawmaker Zarnab Sher strongly criticised the alleged unavailability of medicines in DHQ hospitals, claiming patients were being forced to buy medicines from private pharmacies. She said she possessed prescriptions as proof of shortages in government facilities.
In response, Khawaja Imran Nazir assured the house that shortages identified in hospitals would be addressed.
The minister also announced that the Punjab government planned to recruit 3,000 doctors across the province under a new system aimed at preventing politically motivated transfers and postings.
He said newly appointed doctors would undergo performance evaluations after one year through key performance indicators (KPIs), adding that contracts of underperforming doctors would not be extended.
Highlighting ongoing healthcare initiatives, the minister said the government had established 19,000 community health centres and deployed community health inspectors at previously non-functional facilities.
He added that field workers had been provided digital tablets to improve monitoring and reporting within the healthcare system.