LAHORE:Provincial Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique has directed the officials concerned to ensure transparency in Punjab Chief Minister’s flagship programmes, improving the quality of service and ensuring the best monitoring for the convenience of patients.
He issued these orders while addressing a meeting in the Department of Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education on Wednesday. The meeting was convened to review Chief Minister Adult Cardiac Surgery Programme and the Chief Minister Children’s Heart Surgery Programme.
Secretary Health Punjab Azmat Mahmood, Special Secretary Development Ahmed Kamal Mann, CEO Punjab Health Initiative Management Company Dr Ali Razaq, COO Shamshad Ali Khan, MianMuneeb, Hasnat and other officers attended the meeting.
During the meeting, the provincial minister was briefed about the monitoring framework of various health projects, service delivery and steps taken for the convenience of patients.
Provincial health minister said that so far, free treatment worth more than Rs17 billion has been provided to patients under all special programmes from the designated hospitals. Several historic and fundamental steps are being taken in the health sector.
He said that free treatment facilities worth more than Rs3 billion are being provided to heart disease patients annually under the Chief Minister’s Adult Cardiac Surgery Programme. According to NADRA records, all permanent residents of Punjab are included in the CM’s Adult Cardiac Surgery Programme.
Annual coverage of Rs1 million is being provided per patient, he informed. The health minister said that under the CM’s Children’s Heart Surgery Programme, so far, free of cost heart surgeries have been conducted on more than 12,000 innocent children belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir, Islamabad, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh at a cost of billions of rupees across the province.
