RAWALPINDI, June 3: The Punjab government will enhance the allocation for health sector in the budget for next fiscal year by around 172 per cent.
This was stated by provincial health minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed, while speaking at the 5th Convocation of Rawalpindi Medical College on Thursday.
"I take pleasure in announcing today that we have recommended record enhancement in the health budget," he said. The allocation in the Annual Development Programme for the health sector during the fiscal year 2003-04 was Rs846 million, which is being enhanced to Rs2.3 billion during 2004-05.
The previous allocation, Dr Javed said, was quite meagre for the province having a population of 83 million. During the next year, the provincial health ministry's focus will be on improving the healthcare facilities at the grassroots level.
"I would be working to improve the conditions at the basic health units, the rural health centres and the Tehsil headquarters hospitals," he said. Commenting on the present situation, he said there was little difference between a primary healthcare centre, a secondary health service provider and a tertiary care facility.
The minister stressed the need for revamping the working of rural health centres and providing specialists at the Tehsil headquarters hospitals to reduce the burden on the tertiary care hospitals.
He invited the doctors to assist the government in the policy-making by contributing their ideas. Dr Javed said the government was also working on improving the status of doctors and nurses, both of whom were important pillars of the medical profession.
He said a separate cadre of nursing officers was being created in the government hospitals. Those holding bachelor's degree in nursing will be appointed nursing officers.
For this purpose, the government is facilitating nurses in getting B.Sc nursing degrees. Similarly, he said the government was working on a plan to enhance the stipend of postgraduate trainees.
Punjab governor Lt-Gen (retired) Khalid Maqbool, in his speech, said prevention and awareness should be the hallmark of the government's health strategy. He said more improvement could be made through simple measures like clean drinking water, adequate sanitation facilities, eliminating quackery, rational use of drugs etc.
Gen Maqbool said, currently, the healthcare system was inadequate, whereas diseases, particularly infectious ones, were on the rise. Criticizing the Punjab government's policy of offering incentives to the doctors to opt for service outside major cities like Lahore, the governor said: "You cannot send people out of Lahore to serve in remote areas, rather you would have to recruit the health professionals locally."
Paying tributes to the University of Heath Sciences, he said it had undertaken great measures for improving curriculum and streamlining the examination system.
He asked the government to invest in medical research, saying the country was short of medical scientists. Earlier, degrees were awarded to about 200 graduates of 2002. The best graduate award went to Sughra Abbas. Other recipients of medals were Fareeha Malik, Ahmed Nasiruddin and Shehla Chaudhry.