LAHORE: Adviser to the Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique has directed the officers of the Punjab Health Foundation (PHF) to convene meetings of board of directors (BoDs) on a regular basis to accelerate the working of the foundation.

At a meeting of PHF’s BoDs on Friday, he said the conditions to get loans should be simplified so that maximum doctors could benefit from the facility.

Health Secretary Dr Ijaz Munir, Additional Secretary (Technical) Dr Salman Shahid, PHF MD Izhar Ahmed Sheikh and Prof Dr Eice Muhammad besides other BoDs members were present.

Mr Rafique directed the formulation of rules and regulations of the foundation to include nurses in the scheme. The foundation has Rs1 billion to disburse interest-free loans among the doctors.

He said women doctors of far-flung districts should be approached and motivated to set up a clinic for providing healthcare to the women and children.

The meeting decided to enhance the ceiling of loan for young doctors from Rs400,00 to 800,000 and for a regular doctor Rs1.5 million to Rs2.5 million. Moreover, for a dentist, the limit of loan is Rs1 million.

MBBS result: The University of Health Sciences on Friday declared the result of MBBS final professional annual examination 2013.

A total of 2,696 candidates of 20 medical colleges had appeared in the examination out of whom 2,283 passed. The overall pass percentage remained 85.73.

Hira Yousaf of the Multan Medical and Dental College got first position with 1244/1500 marks, Syeda Jamila Ali of Punjab Medical College Faisalabad second position by securing 1238 marks and Saqib Hasan of Services Institute of Medical Sciences Lahore clinched third position with 1235 marks. Supplementary exams will commence on June 4.

CONFERENCE: The second national conference of the Pakistan Association of Medical Editors (PAME) will start at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Saturday (today).

The theme of the two-day conference, which is being organised in collaboration with the Eastern Mediterranean Association of Medical Editors and the Health Research Advisory Board, is ‘Challenges and opportunities in scientific publishing’.

Guest speakers include Prof MB Rokni, Editor, Iranian Journal of Public Health and Iranian Journal of Parasitology from Tehran University of Health Sciences, and Dr Behrooz Astaneh, Editor, Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences from the University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

The conference is expected to be attended by more than 300 participants.