August 13, 2007	Monday	Rajab 28, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 12: The ministry of health has approved a Rs4 billion project for establishing well-equipped urban clinics in seven major cities, to provide better medical services to the people.

According to official sources, the project will initially start in seven major cities in its first phase. Later, similar clinics will be set up in all cities of the country.

Every clinic will have one male doctor, one lady doctor, a nurse and a lady health worker.

The project’s first phase includes the following cities: Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Quetta.

Sources said these clinics were being set up due to shortage of space in hospitals and to improve the health infrastructure.

The assistant executive director of the Federal Government Services Hospital, Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Naru, has been appointed the national coordinator for the project.

Sources said the federal government will run the project for three years and later hand it over to the district governments.

They said the ministry was also strengthening all federal government hospitals with latest medical equipment and a new MRI unit has started functioning at Pims while construction work on a Burns Centre will be completed soon.—APP