LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says there is a need to improve healthcare system for providing quality health facilities to the common man.

Addressing at a function held on the occasion of lith annual meeting of the Pakistan Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgeons Society at the Children`s Hospital on Monday he said, medical experts should give practicable proposals for improving healthcare system which would be implemented in letter and spirit. Senior doctors should play their effective role for improving health system in the country, he said.

Shahbaz said the Children`s Hospital was providing the best treatment facilities and expressed his desire to expand scope of medical facilities at the institute through satellite in order to target health needs of the people living in the far-flung areas.

He said due to increasing pressure of patients at the Children`s Hospital there was a need to enhance this facility and by providing the healthcare services at the divisional level so that people would not have to bring their children in Lahore.

The CM issued directions for constituting a committee for making indoor building of Children`s Hospital functional at the earliest and the committee should submit its report within a week. He directed Advisor on Health Kh Salman Rafique and the health secretary to prepare and submit recommendations with regard to granting financial and administrative autonomy and other matters relating to the hospital.

Shahbaz Sharif saiddesired results could not be achieved from basic and rural health centres and there was a question mark over their performance. He claimed the six mobile units imported from Holland in 2011 by Punjab were providing treatment facilities to the patients in far-flung areas and asked doctors to suggest such practicable solution to the government to ensure provision of quality health facilities to the masses continuously.

`Our medical experts and doctors working in America, Europe and other countries should give proposals in the light of their experiences for this purpose as every Pakistani is looking towards them,` the chief minister added.

Earlier, Prof Masood Sadiq threw light on the aims and objectives of the conference. He said the delegates from Turkey, America, UK, India, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and other countries were participating in the conference. He also informed about medical facilities being provided to the children suffering from cardiac diseases in the Children`s Hospital. He said the MoUs were being signed with the JB Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and a hospital of London for treatment of cardiac diseases.

Health Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik, Children`s Hospital Medical Director Ahsan Waheed Rathore, Pakistan Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgeons Society President Prof Kaleemuddin Aziz, Children Hospital Dean and Organizing Committee Chairman Prof Masood Sadiq, foreign delegates, surgeons, professors and other senior doctors attended the function.