November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

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LAHORE, Nov 19: The Punjab government has decided to offer 50 per cent raise in salaries and other facilities to the staff working in hospital emergencies.

The announcement was made by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi while speaking at a function held at the King Edward Medical College after laying foundation stone of the Punjab Institute of Preventive Ophthalmology at the Mayo Hospital, on Wednesday.

The chief minister said the decision had been taken to reward doctors, nurses and paramedical staff of hospital emergencies for their extra effort and hard work.

He said the government had also given Rs1 billion to improve the emergency services. “The problems of a majority of patients can be solved by improving services at the hospital emergencies and providing the required medicines on the spot.”

He said the previous governments did not focus on improving services at the emergencies of hospitals, as they just paid surprise visits. However, he claimed that he, along with the health minister, visited the Lahore General Hospital and found its service unsatisfactory. “Instead of suspending officials, the government has decided to improve the services at the department,” he added.

He said the government had also decided to start an ambulance service in the city at a cost of Rs75 million to offer emergency transportation facilities to patients.

The CM said the nursing cadre was also being focused and soon be given training opportunities, higher grade jobs and incentives.

The government, he said, had also resolved the autonomy issue after holding discussion with all the stakeholders. It had given acceptable laws to the health sector.

The boards of management were also working satisfactorily to streamline the affairs of autonomous medical and health institutions in the province.

About the creation of PIPO, he said, the establishment of the institute was much needed to meet the modern eye care treatment requirements. He said there was also a need to take proper care of the blind.

Mr Elahi said the government had allocated Rs400 million for special education. It had also decided to establish a stadium and hostel for blind sportsmen.

Earlier, at the briefing session about the PIPO, he directed construction of institute’s five-storey building within six months. He said the government would release the projected cost of Rs22.09 million in time, while equipment worth Rs23.03 million donated by NGOs and philanthropists would reach the hospital by the end of the next month.

About the removal of encroachments and some private residents from the Mayo Hospital, he said, the issues would be discussed in detail and a prompt action would be taken in this regard.

Earlier, PIPO project director Prof Dr Asad Aslam Khan said the institute would shift the focus of eye care from tertiary to grassroots level.

According to estimates, he said, there were around 2.5 million blind people in Pakistan, 1.5 million of those in the Punjab alone. He said over 80 per cent causes of blindness were preventable.

Prof Khan said the PIPO’s target would be to cure blindness in the province by 2020 by providing facilities for training of GDMOs and paramedical staff and launching courses to produce ophthalmic technicians, technologists and nurses, and orthoptists refractionists.

Besides, the PIPO would help establish a Centre for Childhood Blindness, which would screen schoolchildren and provide low-cost spectacles, train schoolteachers and district eye specialists in paediatric ophthalmology.

The institute would also establish Ophthalmic Research Centre, Learning Resource Centre, a Wet Lab to teach surgical skills to the eye specialists at secondary level, an IOL Bank to provide lenses at low prices to charitable organizations and secondary level government hospitals for poor patients, a centre for manufacturing of low-price glasses for the schoolchildren and an eye bank for supply of cornea to the patients suffering from corneal blindness.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed, KEMC/Mayo Hospital BoM chairman Prof Fateh Khan, principal Prof Mumtaz Hasan and medical superintendent Dr Fayyaz Ahmad Ranjha also spoke on the occasion.