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PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Imran Khan today (Wednesday) has reiterated that the utmost priority of the PTI-led federal government was to bring improvement in the healthcare system of the country.
The Prime Minister expressed his views after inaugurating the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology in Peshawar. “We are taking every possible step to bring a system that provides healthcare for each and every person in the country,” he added.
“The government doesn’t have resources to provide health coverage to every resident but with the help of health cards, it will ensure that everyone is able to get medical treatment,” the premier added.
PM Imran further said, “Whoever has a health card will be able to go to any private or public hospital in their region and easily avail the facilities,” adding that he had specifically instructed the governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab to provide cheap land to hospitals.
“Earlier, private companies shied away from building hospitals in poor areas, but now they can easily resume construction in these areas,” the Prime Minister remarked.
He pointed out that medical equipment at hospitals usually cost a lot and has to be outsourced. “To facilitate them, we have decided to remove duties on all the equipment,” PM Imran announced.
He also advised the new Peshawar hospital’s management to ensure that the quality of their services remains high with the passage of time. “The reason Shaukat Khanum is where it is today is that it was consistent when it came to the quality of its service,” he added.
Commenting on the Institute of Cardiology in Peshawar, he said, “The poor people who cannot afford treatment of heart diseases at private hospitals will now have best medical facilities at this Cardiac Institute.”
The Prime Minister said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s universal health insurance is another important initiative in terms of provision of health coverage to the people of the province, particularly the deserving families.
Referring to APS sixth anniversary, PM Imran said that the attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School showed terrorists that Pakistan will fight terrorism together as a nation. “From that day onwards, we have seen how such incidents have been prevented,” he added.
