LAHORE: The caretaker Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi while addressing the Vice Chancellors, Principals and MS conference here on Saturday said that deadline of the up-gradation of hospitals is January 31st and Rs26 billion are required for this purpose.
“We will provide even if Rs50 billion are required, if the amount on the up-gradation of hospitals is spent in a fair and transparent manner and only then the people will be benefited,” he added.
He said, “We will have to work a great deal for the improvement of specialised healthcare hospitals. No work has been done on the improvement of specialised healthcare hospitals for the last many years.”
He said he came to know after visiting the hospitals that doctors are not responsible for the pathetic conditions of the hospitals.
“If the government does not provide new beds in the hospitals then the doctors will be forced to provide treatment on the worn out beds. If the government fails to provide ventilators and machinery in an adequate quantity then the doctors will not be able to satisfactorily treat their patients. If the hospitals are not upgraded for 20 consecutive years then they will have the same dilapidated conditions,” he added.
The CM said about 20,000 new beds will be provided and basic problems of the hospitals will be resolved.
“We will act upon the recommendations of Vice Chancellors, Principals and MSs for the up-gradation of hospitals,” he said, adding: “We have very competent professors, doctors and principals but we lack good administrators, I give credit to the doctors for treating 5 children on a single bed and they are treating the children beyond their capacity. I am thankful to the doctors that they do not send the patients back on exceeding the limit in the hospitals. They are treating the patients by confining within their limited resources. No law binds a doctor to treat 5 patients on a single bed. The government is responsible for this lapse of not increasing the number of beds in the hospitals.”
Moreover, for the first time in the history, CM Mohsin Naqvi presided over a Planning & Development Board meeting in which the Punjab Cabinet members also participated.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023