Public health: ‘Billions have been spent on providing free medicines’

Special attention has been paid to upgrading hospitals, says Sharif.

LAHORE: “The provision of modern health facilities to the masses is a top priority for the government. Rs17 billion is being spent on the uplift of health facilities this year”, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Sunday. He was presiding over a meeting to review the pace of public health projects.

The chief minister said the universal health insurance scheme would be launched soon and would provide treatment to the poor free of charge. The scope of this scheme, to be initiated from Hafizabad, Chakwal, Rajanpur, and Layyah districts, would be extended to the whole province under a phased programme. Sharif said that billons of rupees had been spent on the provision of free medicines in public sector hospitals over the last five years. He said the policy would continue into the future.

Sharif said new hospitals equipped with the latest medical facilities had been set up, which were providing quality health facilities to the masses. Special attention had also been paid to upgrading tehsil and district headquarters hospitals, he added. He said solid steps had been taken to ensure availability of doctors, para-medical staff and medicines in these hospitals.

The chief minister said people in rural and remote areas were also being provided treatment facilities through mobile health units. He said work on 138 projects in the health sector under the Annual Development Programme was underway. He said out of 138 there were 26 new projects. He said projects to set up drug testing laboratories to improve the standard of medicines and food testing laboratories to assess food quality were also being implemented expeditiously.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2014.