LAHORE: Emergency medical officers opting to serveinhospitalsinfar-off areas of the province will get special pay package ranging between Rs100,000 and Rs250,000.

All tehsil and district headquarters hospitals will have emergency medical officers (EMOs) under the revamp plan to ensure provision of missing facilities there, said Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Ali Jan Khan at a meeting here on Sunday.

Exempt from medicolegal responsibilities, the EMO posted at Kasur and Sheikhupura district headquarters hospitals would get up to Rs100,000a month. The doctors opting to serve at hospitals located in far-off places such as Rajanpur would get up to Rs250,000 pay package.

The paypackage onthe basis of distance of hospitals from mainstream cities would help attract emergency medical officers to serve at infirmaries in remote areas, said Mr Khan.

Presiding over the meeting, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Minister Khwaja Imran Nazir directed the medical superintendents of DHQ and THQ hospitals to maintain millennium service delivery standards (MSDS) pertaining to healthcare in their infirmaries, ensure availability of medicines and standard of cleanliness.

The government has set a target to ensure during the ongoing fiscal year provision of missing facilities at 40 DHQ and THQ hospitals under the revamp plan. Specialistdoctors were being posted at DHQ and T HQ hospitals whileinformationtechnology would be used to monitor performance of medical superintendents.

Every DHQ hospital would have a five-bed intensive care unit equipped with ventilators facility in order to provide better healthcare facilities to critical patients near their homes, said the minister.

Khwaja Imran said an integrated referral system had been introduced.

A pool of ambulances at district level had been set up under the control of Rescue 1122 for immediate shifting of any serious patient from a small hospital to a tertiary level hospital for advanced treatment without any delay.

The Cabinet Committee on Health Sector Reforms had on Jan 11 this year approved a proposal to offer to male and female medical officers recruited on a contract basis for hospitals.