Punjab Population Welfare Minister, Neelam Jabbar has said that more than 300 new family welfare centres will be set up in the province to provide basic maternal and child healthcare facilities to the majority of the masses at their doorsteps.
She said that the Prime Minister's basic healthcare programme initiated by late Benazir Bhutto would further be strengthened so that majority of the population could benefit healthcare facilities. She expressed these views while addressing a delegation of lady health workers and LHVs on Saturday. The Minister said LHWs and LHVs are the backbone of our healthcare system therefore, they should play a vital role in health education of the rural folk.
The government in return, would provide them opportunities of continuous medical education and training besides taking steps to enhance their pay package, she added. Neelam said that the government had also launched a programme to establish community midwifery homes at far-flung areas of the province for basic health facilities for child and mother and to minimise the maternal and neonatal mortality rate during the childbirth.
The Minister further said that womenfolk would be empowered in all sections of the society and employment opportunities will be provided to them in government, semi-government and private organisations so that they could play their due role in the development of the country. She also said that family welfare centres would be established at the villages comprising five to seven thousand of population.
She said that the department was appointing trained staff at these centres, especially in remote areas so that infants and mothers could be saved from fatal diseases. There will be provision of necessary medicine and other facilities for the women population of the province in these centres, she concluded.