December 09, 2006	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 17, 1427

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LAHORE, Dec 8: Federal Health Minister Muhammad Naseer Khan has said that the government will promulgate a law to stop the organ transplant tourism in the country viewing the situation that foreigners arrived here for transplantation of organs and doctors did the job for Rs20,000 to 40,000 on the pretext of saving lives.

Inaugurating a three-day 27th biennial medical conference of the Pakistan Medical Association at Alhamra on Friday, he said those who donated their organs were invariably poor and ironically no rich person had ever donated his organ to save the life of any poor person.

He said that hospitals and doctors engaged in organ transplant were a “shame” to the medical profession and the government would “soon” promulgate the law to check the practice but a change in doctors’ mindset was also necessary to stop the business.

He said that the government had also decided to set up three trauma centers, equipped with helicopters, on the motorway to save lives.

The minister said that the establishment of new medical universities and colleges had not helped improve the standard of medical education as was being expected and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council should assist the government in evolving uniform standards of medical education for all institutions in the country. He urged doctors to promote the culture of research for the dignity of their profession.

The federal health budget had been increased from Rs4.3 billion to Rs11.8 billion and the provinces had allocated Rs53 billion for the healthcare, he said.

Punjab Health Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal said the provincial government had improved the service structure of doctors and had increased their salaries and allowances considerably. The government had also decided to fill 50 per cent of the administrative posts through promoting doctors and 50 per cent through a selection via Public Service Commission.

Punjab PMA President Dr Iqbal Qureshi stressed the need to raise the standard of medical education and to create a disaster response system of international standard. He demanded the government pay more attention to malaria eradication, a potential killer disease, and that 4,000 cases of dengue fever should not be a cause for concern in a country with 160 million population.

PMA President Dr Naeem Agha said the healthcare system was deteriorating in the country because of commercialisation of medical profession as doctors were not ready to serve in basic health units in Balochistan for a Rs5,000 monthly salary.

PMA secretary-general Dr Sher Shah Syed said that the standard of healthcare had deteriorated because the government was taking interest only in the establishment of medical universities instead of attending to improvement of basic health units and rural health centres.