LAHORE: Emergency medical officers opting to serve in hospitals in far-off areas of the province will get special pay package ranging between Rs100,000 and Rs250,000.

All tehsil and district headquarters hospitals will have emergency medical officers (EMOs) under the revamp plan to ensure provision of missing facilities there, said Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Ali Jan Khan at a meeting here on Sunday.

Exempt from medico-legal responsibilities, the EMO posted at Kasur and Sheikhupura district headquarters hospitals would get up to Rs100,000 a month. The doctors opting to serve at hospitals located in far-off places such as Rajanpur would get up to Rs250,000 pay package.

The pay package on the basis of distance of hospitals from mainstream cities would help attract emergency medical officers to serve at infirmaries in remote areas, said Mr Khan.

Pay package ranges between Rs100,000 and 250,000

Presiding over the meeting, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Minister Khwaja Imran Nazir directed the medical superintendents of DHQ and THQ hospitals to maintain millennium service delivery standards (MSDS) pertaining to healthcare in their infirmaries, ensure availability of medicines and standard of cleanliness.

The government has set a target to ensure during the ongoing fiscal year provision of missing facilities at 40 DHQ and THQ hospitals under the revamp plan. Specialist doctors were being posted at DHQ and THQ hospitals while information technology would be used to monitor performance of medical superintendents.

Every DHQ hospital would have a five-bed intensive care unit equipped with ventilators facility in order to provide better healthcare facilities to critical patients near their homes, said the minister.

Khwaja Imran said an integrated referral system had been introduced. A pool of ambulances at district level had been set up under the control of Rescue 1122 for immediate shifting of any serious patient from a small hospital to a tertiary level hospital for advanced treatment without any delay.

The Cabinet Committee on Health Sector Reforms had on Jan 11 this year approved a proposal to offer to male and female medical officers recruited on a contract basis for hospitals.

LGH: The Department of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education has posted on an ad hoc basis 63 doctors at the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) on the direction of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

As many as 11 assistant professors and 52 medical officers will serve in the ENT, neurosurgery, pathology, radiology and neurology departments, said Post-Graduate Medical Institute and Lahore General Hospital Principal Prof Dr Ghiyasunnabi Tayyab on Sunday.

There had been shortage of doctors at the LGH while the number of patients was on the increase, he said while adding that the posting of doctors would help improve the healthcare system and provision of medical facilities to patients.

To a question, Dr Tayyab said the Punjab Institute of Neuro-Sciences project would be completed during the current fiscal year. The Specialized Health and Medical Education Department allocated Rs1000.067 million for the purpose. He said all neuro-related wards were being shifted to newly constructed building of the Institute.

Published in Dawn, February 20th , 2017