Healthcare: ‘Govt committed to providing best possible health facilities’

Salman Rafique pays surprise visit to Liaquatpur hospital.

BAHAWALPUR: In a surprise visit to the Liaquatpur Tehsil Headquarters Hospital at around 10pm on Saturday, Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique addressed citizens’ complaints regarding the hospital administration and assured them that the government was committed to providing the best possible health services to all people.

Rafique and the health director, Rahim Yar Khan Health EDO Dr Fayaz Hussain and District Health Officer Agha Tauheed, visited several wards of the hospital.

Anjuman-i-Tajraan president Haji Muhammad Yameen complained about a shortage of medical staff at the hospital.

Some people told Rafique that the senior doctors at the hospital did not let new doctors, especially lady doctors work at the hospital for long. They said four newly appointed lady doctors were being forced to seek transfers and most doctors were often absent from their duties as they had set up private clinics.

EDO Dr Fayaz Hussain said that the hospital’s medical superintendent lacked the administrative support.

Press Club president Waheed Rushdi requested funds for the maintenance of the hospital’s residential colony and for the completion of a dialysis centre at the hospital.

Rafique said the government was using all its resources to provide healthcare facilities. He later visited a Sahulat Bazaar set up by the Liaquatpur Market Committee. He also visited a basic health centre at T Chowk.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2014.