ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was given a comprehensive briefing over the Prime Minister’s Initiative to Improve Healthcare Infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country at PM House today.
The Prime Minister was briefed over the existing healthcare infrastructure in the country in the context of population: hospital bed ratio and availability of in-patient care facility. The meeting briefed that ratio of beds/1000 people in Pakistan was 0:5 in 1970, 0:7 in 2005, 0:61 in 2015 while 0:62 in 2016. The Prime Minister approved construction of three hospitals in Islamabad with a capacity of 600 beds each, Ten 500 bedded hospitals and twenty 250 bedded hospitals across the country. The Prime Minister has also directed to restore work on one Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital in Rawalpindi that had been stopped in 2011 due to devolution. The Prime Minister directed that Federal Government should complete the structure and run this hospital; allocation of funds for completing this hospital within next 18 months was also approved by the Prime Minister. Besides, the Prime Minister has also approved in Principle, the proposed sites for two more hospitals in the Federal Capital. In addition, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif directed that four to five 100 bedded hospitals be completed in AJ&K and Gilgit Baltistan. The total cost on the construction of these 39 hospitals will be Rs. 110 billion, the meeting was informed.
The Prime Minister said that he would personally monitor the progress on hospitals in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other parts of the country. It must be ensured that poverty ranking, remoteness, burden of diseases, presence of public and private hospitals, poor , health indicators in the areas of Baluchistan, Interior Sind, South Punjab, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, FATA, AJ&K and Gilgit Baltistan be given top priority while finalizing the sites for construction of the hospitals, the Prime Minister emphasized. Majority of these hospitals must be completed within next 18 months according to the criteria, the Prime Minister further directed. The Prime Minister said that Prime Minister Office and Ministry of Finance will combinely allocate funds for construction of these hospitals.
The meeting briefed that a healthcare infrastructure company will be established to review the day to day progress on the execution of this initiative. The Prime Minister was also apprised that services of globally acknowledged designing consultants will be hired for designing of these hospitals in order to construct them on modern lines.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said that the government is simultaneously targeting poverty and disease through infrastructure development and establishment of healthcare infrastructure across the length and breadth of our country. By the grace of Almighty Allah, we are consolidating the gains of economic turnaround, energy self-sufficiency and infrastructure development for alleviating poverty and reducing unemployment, and addressing the long neglected healthcare infrastructure in the country for eliminating the woes of disease stricken masses. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure healthy living for the citizens so that they can contribute towards the development and prosperity of the country without any hindrance, the Prime Minister stated.