9-Member Turk Delegation Of Public Health Experts Currently On A 10-Day Tour Of The Province Of Punjab

03/12/16

9-member Turk delegation of public health experts currently on a 10-day tour of the province of Punjab have completed the assessment regarding extent of implementation of family medicine model and early disease warning system on the analogy of Turkish healthcare system in district Kasur as a pilot project. For this purpose family medicine information system and a pathological laboratory service will be established before launching of the new pilot project with the collaboration of Turkish public health experts. Government of the Punjab has appointed ten dedicated field coordinators to accomplish this task while the Turkish government will nominate five permanent consultants to run this collaborative programme all over the province in future.    

This was disclosed by the head of Turkish delegation Dr. Hassan Shah in a meeting with Additional Chief Secretary Punjab Shmail Ahmad Khawaja during the concluding meeting here today with the Turkish delegation at the office of Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab. Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Kh. Salman Rafique, Minister for Primary & Secondary Healthcare Kh. Imran Nazir, Secretary Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Najam Ahmad Shah and Secretary Primary & Secondary Healthcare Ali Jan Khan were also present on the occasion. 

Additional Chief Secretary Shmail Ahmad Khawaja informed the delegation that the Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has decided to seek collaboration in another pilot project to induct 100 motorcycle-health personnel equipped with the first-aid box. These motorcycle riders will work under the Rescue 1122 Emergency Services where four-wheeler ambulances cannot operate due to narrow passages and traffic jam particularly in the metro-polis of Lahore to start with.

He further apprised the delegation that owing to increasing influx of patients to the tertiary hospitals from far-flung rural areas of the province, Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has decided to launch rescue-1122 Emergency Ambulance Service to save the lives of seriously endangered patients. For this purpose Rescue-1122 Emergency Services will be integrated to the tertiary hospitals with the technical collaboration of public health experts of the Republic of Turkey. He expressed his delight over the fact that a 15-points MoU has already been inked in a ceremony held at Hazoori Bagh Lahore on November 17 this year in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to collaborate with the Punjab government in transforming the health sector. Shamail Ahmad Khawaja said that the government of the Punjab wants to outsource non-core clinical services, medical research, diagnostic facilities, incineration, laundry services, parking and security arrangements of two tertiary hospitals, one in Lahore and one in Faisalabad along with two secondary healthcare hospitals of Sheikhupura and Muzaffargarh districts. The Punjab government will also seek technical collaboration in short term training of hospital managers and nurses apart from establishing family health services model and Emergency Services Control & Command System in the public sector hospitals all over the Punjab. A