It will be the 10th vaccine to be introduced under immunisation programme. PHOTO: FILE
The announcement was made during a visit to the Punjab by the Joint Mission of Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation (GAVI) and the World Bank. The delegates had called on Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan and the technical team from the Expanded Programme on Immunisation Punjab.
Officials from the UNICEF, the WHO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also attended the meetings over two days. During a meeting with the Mission on Friday, Ali Jan Khan said that the EPI programme was centre of government’s focus. He said the Health Department was keen on benefitting from technical knowledge of the global organisations.
The World Bank representative said the Mission was impressed with the progress the Punjab had made over two years, suggesting that the strength of technical human resource in the provincial EPI cell needed to be enhanced to meet the targets.
Rota will be the 10th vaccine to be introduced as part of the immunisation programme. The vaccine, to be administered in two dozes, will help reduce deaths among children less than five years of age from diarrhoea.
The province reports nearly 4,500 deaths annually due to diarrhoea.
‘LGH fully utilised last year’s budget’
“The chief minister has announced One Line Budget allowing hospital administrations to spend funds according to their requirements. This will not only help improve the healthcare system but also raise the standards of services at public hospitals,” Post Graduate Medical Institute Principal Khalid Mahmood told a meeting on Friday. Medical Superintendent Niaz Ahmed, Monitoring Director Junaid Mirza and Nursing Deputy Chief Superintendent Farhat Mahboob were also present on the occasion.
Mahmood said that during 2015-16, more than 1.5 million patients had visited emergency and outdoor patients departments of Lahore General Hospital. He said last year’s budget of the hospital had been fully utilised. He said the computerised tomography (CT) scan and mammography machines at the Punjab Institute of Neuro Sciences had been made functional. A new MRI machine would be installed there this year, he said.
Mahmood said an effective monitoring system had been introduced and senior doctors posted at the hospital. He said the policy to keep OPD opened during the evening shift had provided relief to a number of people.
He said as many as 76,459 operations were conducted and 58,000 patients admitted to the hospital last year.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 23rd, 2016.
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