Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique has said that hepatitis prevention and treatment clinics (HPTC) would be set up at a cost of Rs 2 billion at district headquarter hospitals in the province.
He stated this while presiding over a meeting of the cabinet committee on health reforms. The Hepatitis prevention and treatment clinics will be set-up in the hospitals where there is enough room in the existing buildings to serve the purpose; however, if there is no sufficient enough room in the hospital buildings to accommodate the HPT clinics, new buildings would be constructed to house HPT clinics as per requirements, he said. This facility would also be extended to the THQ hospitals where small dedicated clinics will be set up, he added.
Besides, Minister Primary & Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazir, Minister Population Welfare Begum Zakia Shahnawaz, Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja, Chairman Planning & Development Jehanzeb Khan, Secretary Primary & Secondary Health Ali Jan Khan, Secretary Population Welfare, vice chancellors of the medical universities, principals of medical colleges and other senior officers were present in the meeting while Principals of medical colleges of Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sahiwal as well as the Divisional Commissioners participated in the meeting through video link.
Secretary Primary & Secondary Health Ali Jan Khan told the meeting that PC-I of Punjab Hepatitis Control Programme is approved, according to which Rs 2 billion are being spent on prevention and treatment of hepatitis. Dedicated clinics would also be set up at tehsil level where minimum one doctor and a nurse would be posted for counseling and provision of treatment to the hepatitis patients.
Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute would monitor performance and the working of the doctors and the staff of the sentinel sites through e-monitoring system from head office in Lahore and complete data bank and the details of diagnosis and treatment of the patients would be recorded in the headquarter of PKLI.
P&D Chairman Jehanzeb Khan said that it would be more appropriate if PKLI works as resource center for this purpose. The project of hepatitis prevention and control and treatment is a joint venture in which tertiary healthcare, primary healthcare would work together and PKLI would also be a big partner in these efforts, he said.
He suggested that a technical experts committee should be set up to fix all the protocols and TORs (term of references) for this purpose and both the departments should also make an assessment of their existing system. The meeting also discussed matters regarding recruitment on vacant posts of faculties of Dera Ghazi Khan and Nishter Medical College Multan. Matters regarding the functioning and redressing the gaps in making fully operational the Multan Institute of Kidney Diseases also came under discussion.