March 03, 2007	Saturday	Safar 13, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Mar 2: The government plans to set up two specialised paediatric cardiac surgery centres in the twin-cites of Islamabad and Rawalpindi and one in Karachi.

The three centres would be set up at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi; Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Islamabad; and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Karachi.

Health Secretary Anwar Mehmood speaking at a symposium at Pims on Friday said there was a possibility of establishing another centre at Lahore as well.

He said the paediatric cardiac surgery had not been given the importance it deserved and as such no major institutions in this field could be developed. The health challenges, he said, were many, but the government was equally committed to dealing with them.

He said the government responded to the health concerns by increasing the budgetary allocations.

“In the next federal budget the size of Public Sector Development Programme for health would be around Rs15 billion,” the secretary said adding 80 per cent of this amount would be spent on prevention programmes.

Mr Mehmood reiterated his ministry’s resolve to establish a health city in Chak Shahzad where some big institutions like Federal University of Health Sciences and Sheikh Zayed Hospital are likely to come up.

“Very soon Islamabad would become a major healthcare centre,” he added.

Executive Director Pims Dr Fazle Hadi said major progress towards establishment of Federal Medical and Dental College in Islamabad was expected by September although hiring of faculty has been already started.

APP adds: Pakistan is at an early stage of epidemiological transition with communicable diseases accounting for a dominant share of diseases burden that are preventable or readily treatable.

This was stated by Chief Public Health Laboratories Division, National Institute of Health, while speaking at a certificate awarding ceremony of an introductory course for doctors here on Friday.

The course on ‘disease surveillance and outbreak response’ was arranged by the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (FELTP), a joint project of the Ministry of Health, National Institute of Health, USAID and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Twenty-four doctors from all over the country participated in the month-long course. The objective of the month-long course was to control disease morbidity and mortality rate.

Dr Kazi, who is also National Coordinator of FELTP, said despite significant advancements in health sector, the public health systems in the country are still fragmented.