LAHORE: The budget for primary and secondary health for 2017-18 will be Rs111 billion as opposed to Rs66bn last year with 58.4pc increase. A significant amount of Rs73.50bn has been set aside for the district health authorities.

Punjab Finance Minister Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha presented the health budget in the provincial assembly.

According to the budget, Rs20bn have been earmarked for the revamp and modernisation of all tehsil headquarters (THQ) and district headquarters (DHQ) hospitals while special attention will be paid to infrastructure, modern machinery and equipment, recruitment of nurses and doctors and outsourcing of janitorial and security staff.

CT scan machines and various diagnostic services will be made available for the public with the collaboration of private sector while the services of both public and private sector anaesthetists will be hired to meet the shortage.

Under the Chief Minister Health Reform Roadmap Programme, in the primary healthcare initially Rs1bn have been earmarked for south Punjab and its remote areas. Funds from this amount will be provided for 100 more mobile health units. Sixteen mobile health units in the next few weeks will start provision of health services across Punjab.

Rs73.5bn set aside for dist health authorities

The THQ and DHQ hospitals and teaching hospitals will also be included in the Hepatitis Control Programme along with 80 other hospitals.

The Punjab Agriculture, Food Authority will be formed with Rs2bn and it will test medicines, food and pesticides according to international standard. The drive against fake and substandard medicines will be intensified and up till now, action has been taken against 84 manufacturers of such medicines.

In 11 districts of south Punjab, improvement of mother and child healthcare has been planned with an amount of Rs1bn. The Punjab Health Facilities Management Company has been formed for improvement of administration of basic health units (BHUs) and rural health centres (RHCs).

Medicines worth Rs10bn are being provided to all hospitals and medical centres across the province. Dr Ayesha has stressed that for the first time medicines being bought are of international standards and excellent quality, saying that these medicines will be in the access of the common man rather than just be restricted to the rich. There will also be an improvement in the storage of medicines.

A rural ambulance service has been formed for pregnant women in remote areas for safe delivery of their babies under the Lady Health Worker Programme. This service will provide safe and quick transport of women to the medical centres 24 hours a day.

For the upcoming fiscal year, an amount of Rs25.26bn has been set for various development schemes of specialised health care.

Last year, the hospitals were provided with Rs12bn for medicines and the amount has been increased to Rs16bn for the upcoming year.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2017