Public health: Children’s Hospital to be inaugurated on August 14

It will have a capacity for 1,000 beds

FAISALABAD:

Children’s Hospital in Faisalabad will be the biggest hospital for children in Asia and second largest in the world, State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said on Sunday. He was talking to newsmen after reviewing progress construction of the hospital.

Abid said other provinces should follow the example of the Punjab government and invest in public health initiatives.

He said the hospital was a gift from Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to the people of Faisalabad.

The state minister the hospital would be constructed over 280 kanals. He said it would have a capacity for 1,000 beds.

He said children up to 14 years of age would be treated at the hospital. He said specialists in 20 paediatric fields would be available at the hospital. The state minister said the government was planning on launching a water supply project in Faisalabad. Abid said the first phase of the project would be completed at a cost of Rs5 billion.

He said it would provide potable water to 1 million people of Faisalabad.

He said the second phase of water supply project would kick off next year and would be completed at a cost of Rs12 billion. The state minister said governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Blochistan initiate projects like those launched by the Punjab government so people in the country had access to international standard facilities.

Earlier, briefing the minister, District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal said that the emergency and outpatients departments of the Children’s Hospital had been completed within six months. He said most of the construction work at the emergency block and outdoor patient department had been completed. “These departments would be inaugurated on August 14,” he said.

The DCO said machinery and equipment had been purchased.

He said the provincial government had sanctioned formal approval for recruitment of medical, paramedical and nonmedical staff for Children’s Hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2015.