ISLAMABAD: (APP) On the directives of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the Federal Government has written letters to the chief secretaries of four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration for allocation of land for the construction of 46 hospitals.
These hospitals will be fully funded by the Federal Government with state of the art facilities and designed by the international consultants.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has directed to complete the hospitals before the end of the tenure of present government to realize his dream of the social corridor across the length and breadth of the country, said a press release of the PM Office media wing here on Saturday.
This corridor will translate into reality the Prime Minister's vision of establishing a tertiary care health network in the four provinces, AJ&K and Gilgit-Baltistan.
"We are simultaneously targeting poverty and diseases in the country as poverty and diseases make a deadly combination in any household," the Prime Minister said.
The proposed sites in Punjab for 500-bed hospitals are Rajanpur, Jhang, Bhakkar, Sadiqabad and Rawalpindi while 250-bed hospitals will be constructed in Burewala, Ahmedpur East, Kot Addu, Taunsa, Sahiwal (Sargodha), Pasroor and Layyah.
500-bed hospitals each would be constructed in Jacobabad, Mirpur Khas and Badin while 250-bed hospitals would be established in Islam Kot, Nausharo Feroze and Meher districts of Sindh.
In Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, 500-bed hospitals would be set up in Haripur and Charsadda, 250-bed hospitals in Batagram, Hangu, FATA, and Chitral, and 100-bed hospitals in Garhi Habibullah and Kaghan.
In Balochistan, 100-bed hospitals would be constructed in Hub, Noshki, Chaman and Punjgur, 250-bed hospitals in Khuzdar, Loralai and Sibi, and a 500-bed hospital in Quetta.
The 250-bed hospitals would be constructed in Skardu and Gilgit, a 100-bed hospital in Karimabad (Hunza), and a 50-bed hospital at Ghanche in Gilgit-Baltistan.
A 250-bed hospital would be constructed in Muzaffarabad, 100-bed hospitals in Rawlakot, Kotli and Athmuqam, and a 50-bed hospital at Leepa in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Land would also be allocated for three hospitals in the Federal Capital. The three hospitals would lessen the burden on Federal Government Services Hospital, Polyclinic and PIMS (Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University).
Besides, easing access for the residents of the surrounding areas of the Federal Capital, the three hospitals would also cater for the patients of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, AJ&K and Gilgit-Baltistan.
After completion, these hospitals will run on the best management model having minimum control of the government with the best service delivery.
The selection of districts for the proposed hospitals across the country has been made keeping in view the Poverty Index and availability of health infrastructure across provinces.