Govt committed to provide better healthcare services: Nasir
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—Federal Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan said the government has initiated several programmes and projects to provide better healthcare services to the people.
He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the new paediatric operation theatre complex at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Monday. The complex has been completed at a cost of three hundred and fifty million rupees.
He said the government is giving top priority to the child healthcare and the completion of the paediatric theatre complex is step forward towards achieving the objective of providing health to each and every individual, particularly the children.
He said the government is also addressing inadequacies in primary, secondary and tertiary health care services and creating mass awareness in public health matters to reduce the burden of hazardous diseases.
The Minister said the government is taking all necessary measures in collaboration with neighbouring Afghanistan to eradicate Polio. He said Pakistan this year registered 13 cases of Polio while 23 cases were registered in Afghanistan. As part of collective effort against the crippling disease, Health Ministers of both the countries will cross the border to administer polio drops to children below the age of five years.
He said the construction of the operation complex at PIMS will go a long way in providing advanced tertiary care facilities to the Children. This complex will enable the surgeons to carry out sophisticated surgeries with better results and will bring us at par with other developed countries of the world.
He thanked the Japanese government for providing the financial assistance of three hundred and fifty million rupees for the completion of the project. He said Pakistan and Japan have deep rooted friendship and the operation theatre complex is yet another step in strengthening the existing and time-tested friendship.
Meanwhile, stated this while addressing at inauguration ceremony of state of the art children operation theatre with collaboration of Japanese government here in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Monday. Minister Embassy of Japan Hiroyuki Kishino also addressed on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister further said that completion of this operation theatre complex with estimated cost of 350 million would not have been possible without the generous help of the government of Japan.
He expressed his gratitude to the government and people of Japan for lending generous help in completing this project.
Construction of the operation theatre complex at the Children Hospital is yet another milestone achieved by PIMS and this complex will enable the surgeons to carry out sophisticated surgeries with better results and will bring them at par with other developed countries in the world, he added.
He vowed to make PIMS as exemplary hospital and various projects with total cost of Rs. 3 billion are being continued in PIMS. He said that construction work of 12 stories building would be inaugurated in month of January next year and inauguration of first burn unit in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad would be held in February.
The Minister disclosed that Government of Japan would upgrade the children hospital in PIMS with total cost of Rs. 174 million. The Minister added that more than 10 million children in the world still die before their fifth birthday due to pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria therefore government has initiated several measures, programmes and projects to control said diseases.