Rehabilitation centres to be set up in every district

Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique met on Thursday the Manager, Physical Rehabilitation Programme of the International Committee for Red Crescent, to talk about setting up rehabilitation centres in the Punjab.
Advisor Rafique told Programme Manager Corlos Delagdo in the meeting that the centres would be established in every district and in the first phase, as a pilot project, nine centres would be set up in every divisional headquarter with the Red Crescent assistance, which also drew in Punjab Health Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik, Health Technical Additional Secretary Doctor Salman Shahid, Red Crescent Representative Bukht Sarwar, Mayo Hospital Rehabilitation Centre In-charge Dr Khalid Jamil and Professor Qazi Muhammad Saeed of the King Edward Medical University.
Red Crescent Representative Sarwar briefed the advisor and the health secretary about the project, saying the Red Crescent was already running a centre in Muzaffargarh where 4,314 procedures of the disabled were carried out and artificial limbs were also being fixed to the disabled. "There are a big number of disabled people in Pakistan because of earthquakes and terrorist activities and approximately 0.5 million people need supportive instruments," he added. Secretary Malik then stressed the need for collecting complete data of the disabled for better planning for their rehabilitation and that apart from providing infrastructure and financial resources, provision of trained human resource was another big challenge. He said, "Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has already given his consent to set up the rehabilitation centres for the disabled and that the government will provide financial resources for these centres, but they should be run on management model for which constitution of management committees will be a good option."
The Red Crescent representatives said their institution was ready to provide the running cost of these rehab centres for three to five years after establishment. It was decided that in the first phase, nine centres would be set up at divisional headquarters level, out of which, the Red Crescent would establish six and the Punjab government three. Advisor Rafique said he would tell Chief Minister Sharif to hold a meeting to get the latter's approval.