ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday laid foundation stone of the country’s first Nursing University in Islamabad, which is being established with the cooperation of Bahrain.
The state-of-the-art King Hamad University of Nursing and Allied Medical Services is being established with the assistance of Bahrain. Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister (PM) said under the PM Health Program, free treatment facilities were being provided to the poorest of the poor in the country.
He said that the government was committed to improve the quality of human resource in the nursing profession and to further enhance its prestige. He expressed the confidence that the university will bring quality of nursing care in Pakistan at par with international standards.
The PM said that health was one of the top priority of the Government. It has introduced major reforms and initiated projects focused on poorest of the poor. PM announced construction of fifty state-of-the-art hospitals in densely populated and marginalized areas throughout the country.
He said the goal of the Government is to provide integrated healthcare spanning over entire health spectrum from primary to tertiary care. He said this programme is unprecedented in terms of its magnitude. He said the programme is being implemented in a phased manner and would provide coverage to 100 million people eventually. Work in this regard is being undertaken expeditiously.
PM said besides healthcare, the Government is also focusing on preventive side. National immunization programme is providing free of cost vaccine facility to every Pakistani child and pregnant mother. There has been significant improvement in the coverage of the programme and concrete steps are being taken to arrest the spread of polio.
PM described the proposed university as a significant leap forward in improving healthcare sector in the country as it would help fill an important gap in the healthcare field. He said there was dearth of properly qualified and trained nurses and the project would help overcome this problem.
He said that Pakistan and Bahrain enjoy brotherly relations and stressed to further strengthen it in diverse fields. PM thanked people and Government of Bahrain and especially King Hamad for generosity in offering the support for establishment of this quality university. INP
