Govt hospitals cannot improve unless ministers go there for treatment: PM

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that the government hospitals cannot improve unless elite, including ministers, does not go there for treatment. Addressing a ceremony at COMSTECH on Thursday, the prime minister said that in the previous tenure, even if the ruler had a cough, he would go abroad for treatment. “We have to improve our hospitals and revamp our medical infrastructure in the country,” he added. Imran Khan said has expressed the resolve to chalk out a comprehensive vision to improve living standard of common people and to bring people out of poverty. He said self-belief is panacea for development, progress, and self-reliance. “We have to go towards knowledge economy, education, science and technology to get a dignified place among comity of nations,” he added. The premier also said COVID-19 crisis provided an opportunity to produce locally manufactured ventilators and other protective equipment as everything cannot be imported. PM Khan also inspected various medical equipment produced by various public sector organizations and private sector. On the occasion, speaking at an event, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has said that Pakistan has manufactured its own N-95 mask which will be costed only Rs90. The minister said that Pakistan is producing its own sanitisers and disinfectants and is now capable of exporting them. “We will manufacture own ventilators soon,” he added. “We decided to manufacture face masks, hand sanitizers, and sanitising walk-through gates. The permission of export should be given in the form of producing the more quantity of products,” he said. The minister said the country is producing its own sanitisers and disinfectants today and is in position to export them. He added a committee was also set up to look into ways and means to manufacture Covid-19 testing kits. He also said Pakistan faced a shortage of hand sanitizers in the first ten days of the detection of the first two cases of the novel coronavirus in the country. He said seven types of ventilators designed by Pakistan Engineering Council are in clinical trial, while National University of Science and Technology has developed its own testing kit. Fawad Chaudhry further said private sector, especially textile sector of Faisalabad, is producing protective gears for doctors and heal workers, beyond our domestic consumption.