Govt, private sector can jointly cope with health challenges: Kh. Salman

LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique on Friday said the government and private sector could jointly cope with health challenges.

He said the government was promoting cooperation with private hospitals for providing quality medical facilities to the people.

Besides upgradation of hospitals, new hospitals were being constructed, he added.

He stated this while addressing the inaugural session of second 3-day conference held in connection with cardiac and respiratory diseases at Gulab Devi Hospital, here. Chairman Gulab Devi Hospital Syed Shahid Ali, MS Dr. Hamid, Prof. Ashraf, Prof. Zubair and a large number of local and foreign delegates were present on the occasion.

Kh. Salman Rafique said that Gulab Devi Hospital had an excellent history and it had rendered invaluable services for providing treatment facilities to the poor patients.

He said that the recommendations of 3-day international conference would prove to be fruitful regarding treatment of cardiac and respiratory diseases and added the government would consider recommendations of the conference.

He said that on the instructions of Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, implementation had been started on revamping project for equipping all DHQ and THQ hospitals of the province with modern medical equipments and other facilities.

He said that increasing population and as a result, load of diseases was a great challenge for the government and the experts, for which, the experts would have to come forward to cope with it. He said that 40 hospitals would be revamped up to August 2017.

Kh. Salman Rafique said that increase of many hundreds of beds had been made during the last three years in teaching hospitals and added that presently four hospitals comprising 500-bed each were under construction.

He said that Provincial Health Department was also starting joint venture with Gulab Devi Hospital for the treatment of cardiac patients.

Earlier, Chairman Gulab Devi Hospital Syed Shahid Ali and MS Dr. Hamid also spoke on the occasion and gave details about the performance of the hospital.