KARACHI, Sept 18: Pakistan's first Institute of Basic Medical Sciences inaugurated in 1956 at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre has been revamped and renovated after a lapse of around 50 years.

Federal Health Secretary Syed Anwar Mehmood formally opened the renovated institute here on Monday with the hope that the pioneer institute for the training of medical teachers would help in meeting the shortage of the much needed manpower across the country.

The institute comprising six departments including microbiology, pharmacology, physiology, anatomy, bio-chemistry, has till date produced hundreds of postgraduates serving at the public as well as private sector medical colleges. Several of them also earned a name for themselves aboard. As many as 72 MPhils are currently registered with the two-year programme offered at the institute, affiliated with the University of Karachi.

State-of-the-art equipment including an electron microscope have been installed at the facility.

INSTITUTE: The federal health secretary expressed his concern over the constant surge in the cases of cardiac diseases and stressed the need for an increased focus on the preventive aspect along with the curative interventions.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Baqai Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases here on Sunday night. The health secretary said that health as well as the education sector was presently among the top priorities of the government.

Mr Mehmood said that the importance of secondary and tertiary health care centres could not be overlooked in face of constant increase in the number of patients and private sectors as well as NGOs must play their role to provide affordable tertiary care of reasonable standard.--APP

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