KARACHI: Referring to the establishment of Sindh’s own medical and dental council, Sindh’s health minister Dr Azra Pechuho said on Monday that no one knew whether the current Pakistani Medical Commission (PMC) would exist after four years or not with a new government at the Center.

“We will establish the Sindh Medical and Dental Council (SMDC) through legislation in the provincial assembly after the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) rejected our request to reduce the MDCAT merit of Sindh students for admissions to the Sindh. Provincial medical and dental colleges, “Dr Azra Pechuho said Monday at a press conference in the Sindh Assembly building.

Accompanied by Information Minister Sindh Saeed Ghani and Health Secretary Syed Zulfiqar Shah, Dr Azra Pechuho highlighted the achievements of the provincial health department in delivering health services and future plans to help people to obtain quality health facilities in the province. Responding to a question regarding the PMC’s position that it will not register students who do not meet the PMC’s admission criteria, she asserted that who knows whether or not the PMC will exist when these students graduate from medical school. and dentistry in four years. “Do they (PMC) know if they will exist when the next government comes. This government had the PMC bill approved during the joint session of Parliament, although this bill was rejected by the National Assembly and the Senate separately ”, she declared and added that according to the 18th Amendment, higher and medical education was the domain of the provincial government. .

Asked about the health insurance provided by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and federal governments, she said the Sindh government was spending Rs 57 billion for the provision of free health facilities in health facilities, foundations and charitable hospitals to help citizens in need of quality health care. “Health insurance from other provinces and the federal government only covers hospital treatment, while OPD costs are not covered by this plan. The treatment of inpatients through the health insurance scheme is provided by private hospitals, which is a vicious cycle and not a sustainable model, ”she said. -free patient treatment facilities for millions of people Our healthcare facilities perform specialized procedures like liver transplants, kidney transplants and bone marrow transplants and radiation treatments like gamma knife and knife treatments cyber for patients at no cost ”, Dr Azra Pechuho This amount was distributed in the form of grants to enable institutes such as the NICVD to operate and develop new innovations.

Highlighting plans in the healthcare sector, she said they will establish two biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories, one on the Ojha campus of Dow Health Sciences University ( DUHS) and one in the Jamshoro health facility, which would be used for research and diagnosis of viral, bacterial and other infectious diseases. She said they would take over the health facilities run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and run them under a public-private partnership, adding that the famous Sobhraj maternity hospital was being handed over. to a famous organization in the field of gynecology and obstetrics.

“We will also establish a bioequivalence center on the campus of Dow Ojha University, to help increase drug exports to other countries. A disease control center is also being established at the DUHS Ojha campus, ”she announced and added that a Gamma knife installation was also provided at the DUHS Ojha campus for cancer patients.

Conceiving their failure to establish 48 trauma centers in Taluqa and functional district hospitals in Sindh due to the lack of skilled manpower, she said they plan to link them to the main trauma center in Karachi and added that they would also establish a vascular surgery department at SMBB. Trauma center in Karachi.

She argued that there are currently 96 ongoing projects in the annual health sector development program, with 48 new projects while 38 projects have been completed. “Telehealth and telemedicine is another area where work is being done to ensure that a standard of care is maintained no matter how remote the area is. Nurses are also trained for the same purpose, ”she added.