LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab, Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, while issuing directions for completion of health projects on the fast track, asked for a workable plan to shift government hospitals to solar energy in a phased manner.

While chairing a meeting, to review ongoing health sector projects, the CM ordered a full assessment of the solarization of the hospitals and approved funds for the construction of the dental hospital in Jubilee Town. He directed to complete the Institute of Child Health under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and said that the mother and child block of Ganga Ram Hospital should be completed this month. Similarly, he said that the up-gradation of DHQ hospitals in Gujranwala and Sahiwal should be completed soon.

The DHQ hospital in Gujranwala was being developed as a 500-bed teaching hospital while DHQ hospital Sahiwal would be designed as a 773-bed teaching hospital to provide the best healthcare facilities to the patients, he said.

The CM directed that the installation of 30 dialysis machines and other equipment in the 250-bed Institute of Urology and Transplantation Rawalpindi should be completed soon and the outdoor and emergency block of Fateh Muhammad Buzdar Institute of Cardiology DG Khan be made functional as soon as possible. He also approved in-principle the release of funds for the installation of a PET scan and cyclotron machine in Nishtar Hospital Multan. The 256-bed trauma centre and emergency of Jinnah Hospital would be operationalised soon.

The CM also approved the funds for installing the latest machine in the oncology ward of Jinnah Hospital. The meeting was told that a 200-bed emergency ward will be completed in General Hospital Arfa Karim Tower in the first phase.

Moreover, talking to Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan, the CM expressed his concern over drug peddling in educational institutions and vowed that strict legislation will be enacted to stop it. The draft of the Punjab Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 2022 will be finalized soon to make it law after passing from the Punjab assembly as soon as possible, he added.

The CM disclosed that an autonomous agency will be established in Punjab to deal with drugs. Similarly, anti-narcotics courts and district-level anti-narcotics police stations will also be set up, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022