Shahbaz Sharif approves a policy for strengthening primary healthcare

Lahore: Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique has said that Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has approved a policy for strengthening primary healthcare according to which one year service at primary healthcare facilities will be mandatory for fresh medical graduates of public sector medical colleges. Every male and female student of public sector medical colleges would furnish a 30 lac surety bond at the time of admission for this purpose. If he or she violates the surety bond, they will have to deposit surety amount in government exchequer. He said that this condition will be applicable on the admission of government medical colleges from 2015.

Khawaja Salman Rafique further said that this policy will be applicable from the current academic year and the successful candidates of public sector medical colleges will have to   submit this surety bond. The Advisor said that government spends approximately 03 million rupees on the education and training of each medical student in five years but after graduation, a large number of fresh MBBS graduates especially female doctors quit the profession which is a monetary loss of national exchequer but the target to overcome the shortage of doctors in the public sector hospitals cannot be achieved. He said that government medical colleges are getting Rs. 18000/ as tuition fee per year from a student. He said that new policy will help overcome the shortage of doctors in the field but better healthcare facilities will be available to the poor people of the province.