QUETTA: A meeting of the Balochistan cabinet approved setting up of 18 Medical Emergency Response Centres (MERCs) along the highways in the province immediately.

The meeting, presided over by Chief Minster Jam Kamal Khan Alyani, was told that seven MERCs had already been set up at different places and 18 others would soon be ­established in view of growing traffic accidents on different highways.

Official sources told Dawn that the entire project would cost the Balochistan government around Rs4 billion and it would be completed in two years. The cabinet also approved funds for the project.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that his government would ensure top quality medical facilities for the masses across the province.

The cabinet also allowed government doctors to run their private practice in OPDs of government-run hospitals.

Doctors would be paid 60 per cent of the income of their private practices while the rest would be used by the provincial government for developing different sections of government hospitals. The cabinet also approved allocation of Rs200 million for construction of the first cancer hospital in Quetta for which the land has already been allotted.

The chief minister directed authorities concerned to speed up the work on the cancer hospital project.

The cabinet approved funds to install modern medical machinery and equipment in Trauma Centre, Children Hospital and Mufti Mehmood Hospital, Kuchlak.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2020