BAHAWALPUR: The Punjab government has changed the name of the Government Civil Hospital, Jhangiwali Road, Bahawalpur to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital-2.

A notification to the effect has been issued by the Punjab Secretary, Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department in Lahore. It said the decision had been taken by the standing committee of the cabinet on finance and development on June 3 last.

The committee took this decision on the recommendation of the Board of Management (BoM) of the Quaid-e-Medical College (QAMC), which also governs the administration of the formerly civil hospital.

The QAMC BoM had last year at a special meeting recommended to the government to change hospital’s name to BVH-2 to make it a teaching hospital.

The BVH-2 with a bed strength of 410 was built at a cost of about Rs1 billion and equipped with modern facilities during the second stint of former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif. After the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the then civil hospital was made en exclusive facility for coronavirus patients.

Civil Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Rana Muhammad Yousaf said he had yet to receive the notification of the change of name of the hospital by the Punjab government.

ACE: An Anti-Corruption Establishment team claimed to have arrested Waseem Ahmed, a clerk in the M&R Building department, for accepting Rs 10,000 as illegal gratification from a contractor.

According to the complainant, the clerk had demanded bribe for the approval of his bills for which the suspect had also earlier received Rs 64,000 from a contractor.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2020