PESHAWAR, Jan 26: Frontier Province Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has urged doctors and health professionals to serve ailing people with devotion and sincerity.

Speaking on the opening of a Surgical Hospital on Saturday at Hayatabad, Mr Durrani said he had given one month to the public health sector officials to mend ways and improve conditions in hospitals.

If the sector did not show signs of improvement, the government would take an strict action against the wrong doers, he warned doctors and paramedical staff.

Mr Durrani said that the health sector was one of the priority areas of his government. To serve patients was no less than worship, he observed and urged people to help the oppressed masses and asked the doctors to provide proper care to the patients.

Provision of medical facilities to the people of far flung areas was a basic responsibility of the government and a right to the masses, he said and vowed that his government would make every effort in this regard.

The government, he said, was aware of the importance of the health sector, therefore it had sensitised the doctors and other officials concerned to the growing complaints of patients.

He said that as the MMA government of the frontier belonged to the middle class, therefore it was not oblivious to the problems and suffering of the poor across the province.

In past, he said, the tertiary medicare facilities were concentrated in Peshawar and that too were below the mark. Presently, he told the audience, the government had taken remedial measures to bring some improvement in the sector.

Mr Durrani told the audience that separate commissions comprising the elected public representatives and experts were being set up in various services sectors of the country. These bodies, he said, would recommend steps to improve their respective sectors.

He welcomed the private sectors’ participation in providing healthcare facilities to the people. However, he advised the private parties to discipline their working and ensure that their services were with the reach of the poor.

Later, the chief minister cut ribbon to formally inaugurate the Hayatabad Surgical Hospital.