Canadian orthopaedists' team arrives

Punjab Health Minister, Dr Tahir Ali Javed said that on the directives of the Punjab Chief Minister, a 7-member team comprising orthopedic surgeons and other specialists in various disciplines from Canada reached here on Sunday.
He said the team would set up a surgical camp at Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital, Gujrat to provide specialised treatment facilities to the quake-affected people.
He said that the camp would continue for ten days and refer chronic cases from field hospitals. Other serious nature cases would also be treated at the camp, he added.
The team is equipped with medicine, necessary instruments and latest equipment like cardiac ventilators that would be installed at the surgical camp of Gujrat.
He was speaking at a reception hosted by him in honour of the team members.
The reception was also attended by Health Secretary Javed Malik, Technical Advisor Anwar Bugvi, DG Health Dr Aslam Chaudhry besides the medical team members, Dr Syed Yasir Haider, Orthopedic Surgeon Aberdeen Hospital, Nova Scotia, Canada, Dr Azer Khan, Orthopedic Surgeon Southend Hospital, UK, Dr Edison Skinner, Aberdeen Hospital, Brenda White RN Aberdeen Hospital, Joyce Horne, RN Aberdeen Hospital, Susan MacDonald, RN Aberdeen Hospital and Ms Perveen Sharif, Team Co-ordinator and translator.
He said that under rehabilitation programme of the quake-affected people, the arrangements had been made for Psychotherapy, provision of accommodation and transportation of the injured persons to their native villages after treatment.
He said arrangements were made at the tertiary care and other public sectors hospitals for accommodating the attendants of the patients while the government was also providing them food and shelters.
He said that in order to provide protective healthcare facilities to the earthquake survivors, the Punjab government had sent 100 healthcare workers to spray in Azad Kashmir so that people could be saved from epidemic diseases in the affected areas whereas medical teams of the Punjab Health Department had set up their camps in calamity-stricken areas of Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Khattian, Battal, Mansehra, Battagram besides other areas.
He said the Punjab government had arranged 13,000 beds for the injured at various hospitals in the province whereas more than 10,000 patients had been provided medical facilities in the public sector hospitals of the province and about thousands patients were still under treatment in the various hospitals.
He said that Punjab Health Department had also sent 40 teams comprising six members, including doctors, technicians, dispensers and one member of WHO for the rehabilitation of rural health centers (RHCs) and basic health units (BHUs) in Azad Kashmir.
These teams would complete a comprehensive survey and submit their reports for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of BHUs and RHCs of Azad Kashmir, he added.
Earlier, the team members were received by Technical Advisor Dr Anwar Bugvi, DG Health Dr Aslam Chaudhry besides the officials of Health Department.