LAHORE, July 13: The City District Government is planning to establish an undergraduate medical college at its district headquarters Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital.

Following a nod from District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood, the executive district officer for health has sent a panel of six officials to the Nazim for selection of a focal person to execute the project.

The panel comprises Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Jaffar Saleem, Mian Munshi Hospital MS Dr Shafqat Ali, Mozang Hospital MS Dr Akhtar Rasheed Malik, Kahna Rural Health Centre Senior Medical Officer Dr Iftikhar Husain, District Quality Control Board secretary Abdus Salam Mufti and District Health Development Centre in-charge Dr Ziauddin.

It is learnt that the district government also has plans to link the Mian Munshi Hospital on Bund Road with the Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital for teaching purposes. Though the Mian Munshi Hospital is at a better pedestal with regard to medical facilities, the CDG has selected Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital for its 90-kanal space.

The land has recently been transferred in the name of the hospital from the Punjab revenue department after a long struggle waged by the MS, Dr Saleem. The Mian Munshi Hospital is, however, housed in a building established on a 15-kanal piece of land.

Both the DHQ hospitals have the facilities of surgery, medicine, gynaecology, paediatrics, ophthalmology, ENT, radiology and pathology. At present, the 155-bed Munshi Hospital has a higher indoor surgery ratio but the turnover of outdoor patients is higher at the 145-bed Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital.

When contacted, EDO Dr Abdul Qayyum said the city government was planning to establish a medical college at Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital to create a facility for people living in the backward area.

He said the Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital had been selected owing to better facilities and space available. He said the district government was also working to prepare a master plan for the hospital to be executed in the hospital during the next 15 years.

He said this hospital had great capacity for future expansion. Dr Qayyum said the CDG had provided state-of-the-art electro-medical equipment at both hospitals at a cost of Rs32 million.

It may be mentioned that the Punjab health department has also established undergraduate colleges at Lahore, Sialkot and Rahim Yar Khan and is planning to establish another at Gujranwala.

Though the government has not yet established a college building at Sialkot, the students enrolled for the college are studying at the Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore.