PM approves 39 state-of-art hospitals across country

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PM approves 39 state-of-art hospitals across country

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday accorded his approval for the construction of 39 state-of-the-art hospitals across the country costing Rs 110 billion.

The approval was granted for construction of three hospitals in Islamabad with a capacity of 600 beds each besides ten 500-bed hospitals and twenty 250-bed hospitals across the country.

The premier was briefed over the existing healthcare infrastructure in the country in the context of population to hospital bed ratio and availability of inpatient care facility.

The comprehensive briefing pertained to the PM’s initiative to improve healthcare infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country, according to a press release.

During the briefing, PM Nawaz Sharif said the government was simultaneously targeting poverty and disease through infrastructure development and establishment of healthcare infrastructure across the country.

“By the grace of Almighty Allah we are consolidating the gains of economic turnaround, energy self-sufficiency and infrastructure development for alleviating poverty and reducing unemployment and addressing the long neglected healthcare issue in the country in order to eliminate the woes of disease-stricken masses,” he said.

The prime minister said it was the responsibility of the government to ensure healthy living for the citizens so that they could contribute towards the development and prosperity of the country without any hindrance.

He also directed to restore work on one obstetrics and gynaecology hospital in Rawalpindi that had been stopped in 2011 due to devolution.

He directed that government should complete the structure and run this hospital and approved allocation of funds for its completion within next 18 months.

Besides, the PM also approved proposed sites for two more hospitals in the federal capital.

In addition to these, he directed that four to five100 bed hospitals be completed in AJ&K and Gilgit Baltistan.

The prime minister said he would personally monitor the progress on hospitals in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other parts of the country.

He emphasized that it must be ensured that poverty ranking, remoteness, burden of diseases, presence of public and private hospitals, and poor health indicators in the areas of Balochistan, interior Sindh, South Punjab, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, FATA, AJ&K and Gilgit Baltistan should be given top priority while finalizing the sites for construction of hospitals.

PM Nawaz Sharif stressed that majority of these hospitals must be completed within next 18 months, adding that his office and Ministry of Finance would jointly allocate funds for construction of these hospitals.

The meeting was briefed that a healthcare infrastructure company would be established to review the day-to-day progress on the execution of this initiative.