LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Thursday announced sweeping governance and service-delivery reforms in public hospitals while administering a pledge of zero corruption and public service to Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Medical Superintendents (MSs).
Addressing a conference of hospital CEOs and MSs, the chief minister approved the appointment of Monitoring and Evaluation Assistants, the digitalization of health facilitation operations, and the posting of dedicated administrators and procurement officers in hospitals. She also introduced Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to objectively assess the performance of CEOs and MSs.
A new Performance Evaluation Report (PER) system has been implemented to monitor doctors’ performance, while district and tehsil headquarters hospitals across Punjab have transitioned to a paperless working regime.
The chief minister directed on-call doctors to report to hospitals within 20 minutes and lauded ministers, secretaries, and health teams for achieving a reduction in maternal mortality rates across the province.
Reiterating her vision that no citizen of Punjab should be forced to travel to another city for treatment, Maryam Nawaz said saving a single life was equivalent to saving all humanity. She emphasized that hospital CEOs and MSs played a more critical role than ministers and secretaries in translating government policies into tangible outcomes.
She noted that public hospitals primarily catered to poor and vulnerable segments of society and stressed that patient care must be treated as a sacred trust. Warning that negligence by doctors or nursing staff could result in loss of lives, the chief minister expressed concern over hospital staff using mobile phones during duty hours.
Emergency wards have been linked with Safe City surveillance cameras to strengthen oversight, while strict restrictions have been imposed on the use of mobile phones by doctors during duty hours.
Highlighting the government’s commitment to healthcare, the chief minister said Punjab’s health budget had increased significantly from Rs399 billion to Rs630 billion, stressing that enhanced funding must lead to visible improvements for patients. She disclosed that more than 1,500 doctors had joined public hospitals, while Rs22 billion in outstanding dues had been cleared to ensure uninterrupted availability of medicines.
She directed hospital administrations to ensure the availability of essential medicines, fully functional equipment, proper cleanliness, and efficient patient management systems, including color-coded triage bays. Pharmaceutical representatives will not be allowed inside hospitals, while vigilance teams have been deployed to monitor healthcare facilities across districts.
Maryam Nawaz stressed that leadership positions in hospitals were not privileges but a public trust, urging officials to remain among patients to better understand their suffering and deliver meaningful improvements in healthcare services.
CM lauds completion of free heart surgeries for 10,000 children
In a related development, the Punjab chief minister expressed gratitude over the successful completion of free heart surgeries for more than 10,000 children from across Pakistan under the Chief Minister Children Heart Surgery Program.
Under the initiative, the highest number of surgeries were performed for children from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (425), followed by Azad Jammu and Kashmir (250), federal areas (107), Gilgit-Baltistan (34), Balochistan (28), and Sindh (27).
The chief minister also inaugurated a new intensive care unit (ICU) at Children’s Hospital Lahore, where she visited young patients, met their families, and expressed affection and care.
She attended a special ceremony marking the completion of 10,000 surgeries under the Children Heart Surgery Program and warmly interacted with child patients.
Provincial Minister for Specialized Healthcare Khawaja Salman Rafique informed the gathering that 10,331 surgeries had been completed so far under the program.
Vice Chancellor Masood Sadiq stated that nearly 50,000 children were born with congenital heart disease every year in Pakistan, of whom 25,000 required immediate surgical intervention.
The chief minister increased the number of cardiac surgeons at the Children’s Hospital to 12 and cardiac physicians to 34. Under the Chief Minister Transplant Card, 800 cochlear implants and 200 bone marrow transplants for children have also been carried out.
A special documentary highlighting the Chief Minister Children Heart Surgery Program was screened at the ceremony.
