PESHAWAR, Aug 2: NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan in a bid to strengthen the referral system has formally handed over 13 emergency ambulances equipped with the latest life-saving equipment to medical superintendents of various hospitals of the province.

The ambulances were handed over to officials in a special ceremony held on Wednesday afternoon. Secretary Health Abdus Samad Khan, Director General Services Dr Jalilur Rehman, executive district officers (EDOs), health and medical superintendents of the hospitals concerned were also present there.

Addressing the ceremony, the health minister said that the government was giving proper attention to the betterment of infrastructure of health outlets and provision of human resources to it.

He regretted that in the last 20 years, no attention was given towards improvement of health institutions and especially provision of ambulances to it.

“The government felt this shortcoming and chalked out a proper scheme to provide ambulances to various hospitals last year,” he said.

He said that the ambulances being provided were capable of tackling all kinds of emergencies.

He disclosed that 10 more ambulances would be provided to different hospitals of the province during the current financial year.

The health minister directed the authorities concerned to chalk out a programme for providing ambulances and replacement of equipment to public sector hospitals of the province.

Mr Khan said that the steps being taken by the government for boosting up the health system would bring far-reaching results and would lead to improvement of the standard of healthcare services.

He said that the government instead of chalking out new schemes was focusing on disposing of existing projects.

He said that steps were being taken to make the health sector as the top priority of policy makers.

It is worth mentioning here that the 13 ambulances were purchased at a cost of Rs3.40 million.

Out of these, two were handed over to the District Headquarters Lakki Marwat while one each to the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar; the Khyber Teaching Hospital, the Hayatabad Medical Complex, and the Police and Services Hospital, Peshawar.

Similarly, the district headquarters hospitals of Mardan, Buner, Shangla, Upper Dir and Lower Dir were given one ambulance each.

The Civil Hospital Samarbagh and the Saidu group of hospitals were also handed over one ambulance each.