LAHORE: Punjab has decided to introduce public-private partnership concept in the health sector.

In the first phase of the concept, hospitals will be set up at divisional headquarters level to improve the healthcare system.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday directed the authorities concerned to demarcate pieces of land at divisional headquarters at the earliest.

Presiding over a meeting he reviewed the steps taken to improve the healthcare system and expand the scope of the PM National Health Insurance Programme.

The meeting also reviewed the public private partnership model for the construction of new hospitals.

He ordered the authorities concerned to prepare a road map for the health insurance.

He also said that beds would be obtained in private hospitals from the resources of Punjab government to provide health facilities to the poor.

The chairman of CM’s Inspection Team presented initial investigation report on implantation of substandard stents to patients in Mayo Hospital.

The CM said the Health Insurance Programme would be expanded to the whole of Punjab in phases.

He also sought a new system for purchase, transportation, distribution and storage of medicines and using modern technology to check embezzlement and corruption in the provision of medicines to the common man.

The government will set up its own warehouses for storage of medicines and get support from the Health Ministry of Turkey in this regard. By the end of current year, five warehouses will be set up.

Shahbaz said there should be no complaint of non-provision of ventilators in government hospitals and sought a strategy from the health department to overcome shortage of nephrologists in government hospitals.

He regretted that despite installation of the latest machinery at various hospitals, neither there was staff available to operate it, nor any effective monitoring system in place.

Manawan hospital: The chief minister presided over a meeting to review progress on the under-construction 100-bed hospital in Manawan.

The hospital will be run by the government in collaboration with the administration of Indus Hospital on the pattern of Bedian Road Hospital.

Lauding performance of the Indus Hospital administration, which is also running Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital in Muzaffargarh, Shahbaz said it should follow the same model for the Manawan hospital.

Published in Dawn January 24th, 2017