The government’s major focus is on protecting people from disease through strengthening the primary health care and disease preventive programmes, Provincial Minister for Excise, Taxation and Finance Mian Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman said on Saturday. Speaking to an NGO delegation, he said the government was encouraging NGOs and educational institutions to create awareness of fatal diseases.
He said by increasing the health budget to Rs102 billion, the present government was trying to ensure modern health facilities, free medicines and air-conditioned general wards were available for the poor. He said Rs4 billion had been allocated to launch a health insurance scheme, in four remote districts. He said Rs300 million had been reserved for dialysis facilities for kidney patients in need. Three drug testing laboratories will be established in Multan, Rawalpindi and Lahore. He said Rs7.5 billion were being spent on the provision of free treatment and medicines in public sector hospitals.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2014.