MULTAN, April 12: Punjab governor Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool (retired) has pledged to provide a better service structure to doctors serving in the public sector.

Speaking at the Nishtar Medical College’s convocation here on Friday, he said the government was aware of the problems being faced by the doctors community.

He assured that all house officers and PGRs would be given a monthly stipend in the Punjab. He however urged the young doctors to serve the humanity. All doctors were not involved in malpractices, but some of them had developed lust for money, he said.

Irrespective of the official claims, he said, the common man was not satisfied with the role of state-run health facilities.

The provincial administration was focusing on to bring about improvement in the health sector, he said and added “If I am informed correctly then the coverage of expanded programme for immunization is over 80 per cent in the province.”

The governor underlined the need to create awareness about the general prevention programme to reduce volume of diseases.

The government was trying to look up primary and secondary healthcare facilities especially in the rural areas. For this purpose, he said, a turn around was being introduced at BHUs, RHCs, THQ, and DHQ hospitals.

He said health department authorities told him that 125,000 patients had been benefiting from the state-run health facilities daily in the province. “But even then the main service provider in health is private sector”, he said.

The governor stressed that teaching institutes be made centre of excellence especially after the introduction of new rules of business for autonomous hospitals. He promised that funds would be provided for the improvement of Nishtar Hospital’s operation theatres and casualty ward, besides setting up of the trauma centre.

Earlier, college PEO Dr Ashiq Pervez threw light on the healthcare services provided by the Nishtar Hospital in southern Punjab.

Later, a delegate of the Dental House Surgeons Association met the governor and apprised him of the disparity in the allocation of paid house jobs between Lahore and Multan. The governor assured them that Nishtar College graduates would have equal number of paid house job posts.

Local PMA office bearers also met the governor and urged him to order reinvestigation of the ‘anaesthesia overdose’ incident in the Nishtar Hospital which claimed four lives.