Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has announced grant of Rs 2.5 billion to control "Hepatitis", which is one of the major killer diseases in Pakistan due to poor quality of drinking water. He said that country presently has 70,000 lady health workers, which government intends to increase up to 100,000 from next fiscal year to provide better health facilities to women specially in rural areas at their door step. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was addressing a symposium at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), "Meeting the Health Challenges; past present and future", here on Saturday.
Federal Minister for Health, Nasir Khan and Executive Director of PIMS, Fazle Haddi also addressed the inaugural ceremony whereas State Minister for Health, Begum Shehnaz Sheikh and Federal Secretary for Health, Anwar Mehmood were also present on the occasion. More than 900 doctors, nurses and medical workers attended the ceremony.
The main objective of the three-day symposium was to highlight scientific and academic achievement of researchers in the field of medical science throughout the country.
Shaukat Aziz said that government would increase health budget by 42 percent in next fiscal year and it would be doubled till 2013.
He said that almost all district health hospitals faced shortage of doctors, nurses and medical equipment, but government is committed to provide better health facilities to people, which is their basic right.
He said that government approved "Burn Centre" and "Cardiac Centre" at PIMS and cardiac centre will start working from April 2005.
Shaukat Aziz said that the country faced the shortage of nurses adding that the nurses play the major role in rehabilitation of the patients.
Prime minister said that provision of latest medical equipment is necessary to provide better health services.
Trained staff is also necessary to operate the latest medical equipment and without trained staff, hospitals cannot utilise these instruments fully.
Federal Health Minister, Nisar Khan said that government has approved Rs 11.5 million projects regarding establishment of new health centres including cardiac centre and burn centre at PIMS. The health ministry is working on a proposal to provide VVIP ambulances to every hospital having cardiac health services facilities, he added.
He said that 70 percent population belongs to low-income group so health policies must focus on prevention along with cure.
Fazle Haddi, Executive Director of the PIMS said that Quaid-e-Azam Postgraduate Medical College project (QPGMC) will be completed soon. He further informed that ministry of Information Technology approved Rs 38.70 million for the computerisation of the PIMS.
Talking about the future projects, he said that burn centre will be completed in 18 months and the first phase of the cardiac centre will be completed in April 2005. He further informed that PIMS is planning to establish "National Advisory Centre for Poisoning" which will start working from next fiscal year. He said that centre will be connected by telephone/e-mail to give advice to doctors.
At the end of the ceremony Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz presented the shields to Federal Minister for Health, Nasir khan, State Minister for Health, Begum Shahnaz Sheikh, Syed Fazle Haddi, Executive Director of PIMS, Prof. Anwar-ul-Haq, Prof. Khaleeq-uz-Zaman, Air-Comdr. Sajjid Haider, Dr Anjum Khawar, Dr Mehmood, Nadeem Akhtar, Dr Waseem A. Khawaja, Naoko Hazama, Shanakat Hussain, Anjum M. Sheikh, Rafaqat Ali Butt, Saeed Ahmed and Malik Muhammad Rafiq for their best performance in the field of medicine.
He also presented gold medals to Dr Asma Fardeedi, Dr Mazhar Badshah, Shazia Gulnaz, in charge nurse and Noor Muhammad Lasker, for their best performance at PIMS.