PESHAWAR, Aug 8: Federal Minister for Water and Power Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said that the government would support private organisations to strengthen the healthcare facilities and cater to the needs of the patients.

Addressing the first anniversary of the Frontier Foundation Welfare Hospital and Blood Transfusion Services here on Sunday, he said that it was not possible for the government alone to provide all health facilities to the people and appreciated the role of private organisation in this regard.

Mr Sherpao also praised former squash world champions, Qamar Zaman and Jan Sher Khan, local artistes and singers, Gulzar Alam, Tariq Jamal, Javaid Babar and others for helping the hospital in its endeavours to treat children afflicted with thalassaemia. He urged the people, especially the young and healthy students and youths to donate blood generously to help the children.

Mr Sherpao urged the philanthropists to come forward and extend a helping hand to such organisations to make their task easier. He also emphasised the need to raise the level of public awareness regarding blood donations to overcome the problem of shortage of blood.

"We have to provide healthcare facilities to some three million Afghan refugees, who are our guests. We would leave no stone unturned and would try our level best to cater to their healthcare needs," he also said.

Earlier, the foundation's chairman Sahibzada Haleem gave an overview of the work of his organisation. He said that the foundation was established one year ago to provide blood transfusion services to children suffering from thalassaemia, haemophilia and aplastic anaemia.

"During the past one year, about 4,000 pints of blood have been provided to the children free of cost. The children also needed some costly pre-blood transfusion tests, which were also carried out free of charge", he said.

He said that 40 per cent of the children were refugees, who had no facility of their own and were given blood at the centre.