Government believes in strengthening of medical institutions:Saira Afzal Tarar

Lahore: State Minister for National Health  Services, Regulation and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar said
on Saturday the government believed in strengthening of medical institutions and supporting initiatives which would add value to the medical practices in the country.

Addressing a inaugural ceremony of American Heart Association Roll Out 2015 ceremony here at College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP), she said that it was our responsibility that
no person was left without appropriate health and medical care and our medical institutions were helping the government to perform its duties in efficient manner.

She said that launch of Advance Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Basic Life Support (BLS) courses would help in reducing the mortality rate and hoped that the horizon of these courses would
also be extended to nursing, paramedical staff and school systems.

The minister said that it was good that CPSP was developing and training specialist doctors through specialized workshops, courses and contributing to basic knowledge and research.

Saira Afzal Tarar said that existing emergency service in the country was providing emergency cover in major cities of the country. She assured that the government would extend support in
all good initiatives and hoped that trained specialists empowered with learning at these courses and workshops would serve the nation through their committed research and development in
their disciplines.

She further said it was good that number of courses and fellows were increasing and at the same time quality should not be compromised. “We are strictly working on regulations to bring improvement
in health sector”, she added.

She hoped that CPSP President Prof Zafar Ullah Chaudhry and his colleagues would continue to serve the people of the country through improving the number of specialized doctors
in Pakistan.

Later, talking to media she said that in December, Prime Minister’s Health insurance programme would be launched which would benefit the poor people.
To a question, poor would get benefit from social sector initiatives. She said the trust of people in PML-N government during LB elections was due to the public welfare-oriented policies of the PML-N government adding that completion of different projects would bring more betterment.

To another query, she said that if we want to increase the Universal Health Coverage, the training of Lady Health Workers (LHWs) was vital.

Earlier, CPSP Vice President Prof Khalid Masood Gondal highlighted the working of CPSP while Prof Mehmood Ayaz, Prof Abrar Ashraf Ali, Dr Ahmed Aziz and Dr Zulfiqar highlighted the importance of this international course and informed the participants about the future strategy.