LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said on Thursday that Pakistan was going through a very difficult time as flood had affected the entire country in an unusual way.
Addressing a press conference here, she said: “torrential rains have badly affected areas of Mianwali, Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab.” As many as 346 villages in DG Khan, 176 in Rajanpur and 16 villages in Mianwali had been affected by floods badly, she added.
Dr Yasmin said 463,403 people had been affected in the flood-hit areas and there was an urgent need for relief activities in these areas. She said 1120,000 acres of land had been affected by floods, and the number of households affected stood at 43,000. She said 60 relief camps had been set up by the Punjab government in affected areas.
The minister said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Central Punjab had sent 22 truckloads of relief goods for the flood victims. PTI Chairman Imran Khan had received five-and-a-half billion rupees of donation for the relief of the flood-affected families through a telethon within a few hours.
She said, “We want maximum people to contribute to the fund so that the process of rehabilitation of the affected families could be started.”
Dr Yasmin said the Health Facilitation Card was a big project of the government and with the grace of Allah Almighty, 2,016,000 people had received free treatment in Punjab through the Sehat Sahulat Card.
She said that Ghurki Hospital was also going to provide the facility of cyber knife treatment in Lahore.
Sania Nishtar had been made in charge of Sehat Sahulat programme and now more facilities would be provided to the people of Punjab through Sehat Sahulat card, she added.
She said that amount would be increased from Rs 1 million in case of any emergency.
In Punjab, 816 government and private hospitals had been empaneled for the Sehat Sahulat card and more than 83,700 beds had been increased in the empaneled hospitals for patients, she said.
Yasmin Rashid said that 97 per cent people of Punjab had expressed satisfaction about health facility card.
She said that cancer patients were also being given facilities through Sehat Sahulat card. She said that on Sept 30, the emergency and intensive care unit of the under-construction Mother and Child block in Gangaram Hospital Lahore would be opened.
The problem of dengue was increasing in Rawalpindi and more than 500 beds had been allocated for dengue patients in government hospitals, she said and added that at present, 100 dengue patients were admitted to Rawalpindi.
Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin said that teams of doctors of two medical universities of Punjab were performing their duties for medical assistance of victims in the flood affected areas. To get any kind of guidance related to New Pakistan National Health Card or to file a complaint, the public could contact on 0800-09009, 042-99205765 and 042-99203694, 042-99333604 and 042-99333605.
