LAHORE, July 7: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will hand over the health portfolio to a member of the provincial assembly (MPA) of his party after “overhauling” the sector, a Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) MPA told Dawn on Monday.

“His (Mr Sharif’s) main objective is to improve the condition of public hospitals and facilities in the province,” the MPA, seeking anonymity, said, adding that his “surprise visits” to 17 hospitals and facilities across the province were the first measure to improve the performance of hospitals. He said the chief minister had formed a number of committees, which would suggest measures needed for improving the sector.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told Dawn the main priority of the chief minister was to maintain law and order and not to improve the health sector. He said the chief minister would hand over the health portfolio to any MPA in the next phase of cabinet expansion. As the chief minister continues raiding hospitals to ‘improve’ the condition of health facilities, doctors call it a futile exercise.

A senior physician said “mere raiding” public hospitals and suspending their heads from service would not help improve the sector.

He said most of the heads had been suspended from service for not maintaining “cleanliness” in their hospitals which was, in fact, one aspect of the whole structure. He asked the chief minister to lay stress on “patient care system” and introduce long-term policies.

“The chief minister should take healthcare delivery specialists on board to set “macro parameters” for a patient-friendly system, besides formulating the first health policy of the province,” he said.

He sought Mr Sharif’s attention to a number of posts of doctors lying vacant in the public hospitals, especially in rural health centres and basic health units. The senior doctor said the patient-doctor ratio should also be rationalised. He said there had been no “genuine” survey to determine the ratio, and according to an estimate even in one of the best teaching hospitals of Punjab one doctor was available for 20 patients in the emergency.

Earlier, the PPP wanted either health or education ministry but the PML-N showed reluctance. Then, a committee, consisting of Mr Sharif, Ishaq Dar and Rana Sanaullah from the PML-N and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Raja Riaz and Ahmed Mukhtar from the PPP, was formed to resolve the issue. It worked out modalities regarding the distribution of portfolios to the parties and reached a consensus that health and education ministries would be headed by the PML-N and the PPP would be compensated by giving the portfolios of its choice from the remaining ones.—Zulqernain Tahir