ISLAMABAD (Web Desk/APP) – Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Friday in principle, accorded his approval for the construction of 38 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 bed each, besides ten 500 bed hospitals and twenty 250 bed hospitals across the country.
The Prime Minister was briefed over the existing healthcare infrastructure in the country in the context of population, hospital bed ratio and availability of in patient care facility.
During briefing, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said the government was simultaneously targeting poverty and disease through infrastructure development and establishment of healthcare infrastructure across the length and breadth of 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 infrastructure in the country for eliminating 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. The meeting briefed that ratio of beds/1000 people in Pakistan was 0:5 in 1970, 0:7 in 2005, 0:61 in 2015 while 0:62 in 2016.
The Prime Minister 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 Federal Government should complete the structure and run this hospital and approved allocation of funds for completing the hospital within next 18 months.
The Prime Minister said he would personally monitor the progress on hospitals.
He directed majority of these hospitals must be completed within next 18 months according to the criteria.
It is worth mentioning that PM Nawaz recently spent 48 days in London owing to open heart surgery. He was derided for undegoing treatment abroad when he himself served for three terms at the highest position.
