Minister directs for making WIC functional

Caretaker Punjab health minister Prof Dr Jawad Sajid Khan has directed the Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Department to take immediate steps for fully making the Wazirabad Institute of Cardiology (WIC) functional. While addressing a meeting, here today, Prof Khan asked the authorities that arrangements for cardiac surgeries should be completed and emergency service should immediately be introduced.
Secretary Health Najam Ahmad Shah briefed the minister regarding the performance of department and the initiatives and development carried out in health sector. He told the minister that during the last five years, five thousand beds have been included in the treasury care hospitals out of which three thousand beds have been added during the last two years. Twelve mega projects have been completed at a cost of Rs 26 billion in two years. Surgical tower of Mayo Hospital is one of them which is fully functional now, he added.
Shah further informed the minister that operation theaters of WIC have been completed and all the equipment and machinery have been installed there. Moreover, a professor of cardiac surgery has also been posted in WIC. He hoped that within a week or two bypass cardiac surgeries would be started at the institution.
Dr Jawad Sajid Khan observed that billions of rupees of national exchequer have been spent on health sector development and the benefits of this development should directly reach to the poor and deserving patients visiting to these hospitals.
Najam Shah said that Liver Transplant Center of Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore has been upgraded at a cost of Rs 400 million whereas four state-of-the-art burn centers in Mayo Hospital Surgical Tower, Nishtar Hopital Multan, Jinnah Hospital Lahore and Allied Hospital Faisalabad are fully functional.
He further said that central induction policy for postgraduate trainee doctors has been introduced and all the online inductions were made purely on merit in a transparent manner. He said that extra numbers have been allocated for periphery services for PG induction due to that a large number of doctors have been reached at basic health units and out of 2500 BHUs almost 2400 BHUs have got medical officers.
Dr Khan directed to conduct a physical inspection regarding the functioning of 901 ventilators installed in the teaching hospitals. He said that a group of senior radiologists be constituted for online consultancy and reading of CT scan tests for correct diagnosis. He praised the initiatives taken for the development and improvement of specialized healthcare services.