Public health: ‘We will help women doctors open clinics’

LAHORE:

Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique said on Thursday that the Punjab Health Foundation would help women medical officers not planning to pursue medicine professionally after getting married in setting up private clinics.

He was chairing a meeting of the foundation’s board of directors. Rafique said most women medical officers did not work professionally after getting married. He said this was a great loss to the nation. Rafique said the foundation should try to persuade them to establish clinics. He said a special package should be introduced in this regard to enable them to serve their communities. Rafique said there was a pressing shortage of women medical officers in south Punjab.

It was decided to increase the ceiling of interest-free loans for setting up clinics from Rs1.5 million to Rs2.5 million. A proposal advocating the establishment of nursing schools at private medical colleges to overcome the shortage of nurses was also presented at the meeting. It was suggested that the foundation could subsidise the proposed initiative.

Secretary Jawad Malik said letters in this regard should be sent to private medical colleges. He said a feasibility report determining the capacity of these institutions to impart training to nurses should also be carried out. Malik said the initiative to provide interest-free loans to those wanting to establish clinics had been taken to improve quality of health services in far-flung areas of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2015.