LAHORE: Provincial Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique has directed the officials concerned to ensure transparency in the CM Children’s Heart Surgery Programme besides improving the quality of service and providing excellent monitoring for the convenience of patients.
He issued this direction while addressing an important meeting at Punjab Health Initiative Management Company regarding the Chief Minister’s Children’s Heart Surgery Programme.
Khawaja Salman Rafique said in the meeting that the Punjab government has achieved great success under the CM Heart Surgery Programme and 10,114 innocent children suffering from congenital heart defects have been cured completely free of cost with billions of rupees.
The meeting was attended by Punjab Health Secretary Azmat Mahmood. Vice Chancellor University of Child Health Sciences Professor Masood Sadiq, Additional Secretary Procurement Amira Babar, MD Children’s Hospital Lahore Professor Tipu Sultan, CEO Punjab Health Initiative Management Company Dr. Ali Razaq and other officers attended the meeting.
Khawaja Salman Rafique was given a monitoring framework during the meeting work, service delivery and a briefing was given on the steps taken for the convenience of patients.
He said that modern reforms are being brought for the improvement of the health sector under the leadership of CM Punjab Maryam Nawaz. The Punjab government is committed to providing the best, quality and free treatment to the people. Under the CM Children’s Heart Surgery Programme, 420 children from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 249 from Azad Kashmir, 106 from Islamabad, 28 from Balochistan, 34 from Gilgit-Baltistan and 27 from Sindh have been given cardiac surgery completely free of cost.
Secretary Department of Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Azmat Mahmood expressed his opinion and said that all possible steps will be taken for further improvement of the health sector and maximum facilities should be provided to the patients in the em-paneled hospitals and the problems faced by the patients in the Am-paneled hospitals have been directed to be resolved on priority basis.
Meanwhile, Provincial Health Minister Punjab Khawaja Salman Rafique visited Children’s Hospital and met Abdullah Saleem, a seven-year-old innocent child from Mansehra, undergoing treatment at Children’s Hospital Lahore, whose bone marrow transplant was successful.
On this occasion, he inquired about the well-being of the child, talked to the family and appreciated the professionalism of the doctors.
Khawaja Salman congratulated the entire team of Children’s Hospital and said that according to the vision of the Chief Minister of Punjab, providing the best modern and free treatment facilities to children is the top priority of the government.
The successful bone marrow transplant is not only the fruit of the hard work of the medical team but also a testament to the fact that there is also evidence that world-class medical facilities are available in government hospitals in Punjab.
The Punjab government will continue to provide modern facilities and establish specialised centres for the treatment of complex diseases of children so that every child can get timely and quality treatment.
Published in The NEWS on Feb 08, 2026.
