LA HOR E: The Punjab government has allocated a sum of Rs166.13 billion in budget 2015-16 for the health sector, making it 14 per cent of the total outlay of the provincial budget presented on Friday.

It has proposed Rs30.7 billion total development budget for ongoing, new and other development schemes for the fiscal year 2015-16 while Rs12.1 billion for health & family planning.

The allocation for free medicines has been enhanced to Rs10.8 billion. A sum of Rs1.5 billion has been proposed to meet emergencies and control of epidemics.

The government has increased the budgetary allocation for hospital services to Rs54.4 billion for 2015-16 from the last year`s allocation Rs 48.03 billion.

Of the total budget allocated for health & family planning, Rs3.5 billion have been proposed for preventive & primary healthcare, Rs3.21 billion for tertiary care hospitals, and Rs3.24 billion for accelerated programme for healthcare.

Out of Rs30.7billion development budget, a sum Rs7.9billion has been proposed for other and new development ini-tiatives, including Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute, Lahore, for which a sum Rs3billion has been allocated.

A sum Rs1 billion each has been proposed for the provision of more mobile health units in far flung districts and upgradation of Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital in Muzafargarh.

The budget 2015-16 has allocated Rs2.5 billion for the Health Insurance Scheme to be launched in eight districts of Punjab.

The government has proposed Rs1.41billion as `Incentive Package` for specialist doctorswho would beappointed at 700 basic health units of Punjab besides proposing over 8,000 new positions for doctors.

The other major initiatives included establishment of new medical colleges at Bahawalnagar, Bhakar and Attok, cancer hospital in Lahore, cancer treatment centre in Multan, children hospitals at Gujranwala,RawalpindiandBahawalpur, King Edward Medical University Campus at Muridkey, Institute of Pediatric Cardiology & Cardiac Surgery at Children`s Hospital, Lahore, general hospital at Faisalabad, provision of missing facilities at DHQ and THQ hospitals in Punjab, upgradation of nursing schools and colleges.