RAWALPINDI: Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid has directed the departments concerned to make the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) fully functional in next 45 days.

She gave these directives during her visit to the RIU on Saturday.

Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) Vice Chancellor Dr Mohammad Umar and other faculty members were also present on the occasion.

The minister visited the corona wards and inquired after the patients.

She inspected the building and also checked the facilities being provided to the patients of Covid-19 at the facility.

RMU Vice Chancellor Dr Mohammad Umer gave a detailed briefing to the minister about the services being provided to Covid-19 patients.

The health minister said: “The Rawalpindi Institute of Urology will be opened for all health services within the next one-and-a-half month. State-of-the-art dialysis services will be provided to all patients the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology.”

She appreciated all departments who contributed to the development of this institute.

“Top quality healthcare services are being provided at the institute. Improving the life standard of a common man is top priority of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar. Quality of and transparency in the healthcare projects will not be compromised,” she said.

Construction work on 400-bed RIU started in 2012. The project was to be completed by 2014 but slow funding in last five years slowed down the project and it was still incomplete. However, PTI led government released the funds to complete the project.

It was third deadline given by Punjab government to make the hospital functional in last two years.

Earlier, the deadline to make RIU worth Rs2.192 billion functional was end of February this year.

However, due to coronavirus pandemic, the work was stopped and the building was made hospital for Covid-19 patients.

It is expected that the hospital will be fully functional by end of December where kidney transplants would also be done.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2020