LAHORE: The coalition government has taken various initiatives to transform the country’s healthcare system. The measures taken by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government include: the establishment of an autism center in the federal capital, launch of mental health helpline and life-saving CPR training programme, and allowing the prisoners to get medical education reflect a larger commitment to creating a more equitable and modern healthcare system.

In a bid to encourage the philanthropists’ contribution to the health sector, Shehbaz Sharif soon after becoming the Prime Minister inaugurated 600-bed Indus Hospital in Lahore. He also inaugurated six-storey and 350-bed Saleem Memorial Trust Hospital in Lahore and expressed the hope that facility would serve the ailing humanity with world class treatment facilities.

The Prime Minister recently launched the “Humraaz” mental health application and integrated helpline 1166 for citizens’ mental health and well-being.

The incumbent government launched PM’s National CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) programme for the general public to enable them to become a life-saver. The government also established National Autism and Mental Health Centre for children in the federal capital as a first such high quality facility.

Moreover, the federal government has also directed the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) to make arrangements for the inclusion of young prisoners in the next admission test of medical and dental colleges. The government is in the process of establishing a Kidney Transplant Centre at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in the federal capital and would also engage the reputed renal and liver transplant surgeons to run the facility.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023