ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said condition of public hospitals would have been better today, if the ruling elite class would have preferred local medical treatment over treatment from abroad.
“Public hospitals cannot be improved until ministers and ruling elite class get treatment here. Today, the ruling elite class cannot go abroad for medical assistance,” PM Imran Khan said adding that we needed drastic measures to improve condition of the public hospitals. He said this while addressing the participants of an event at headquarters of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) in Islamabad.
He lauded the Ministry of Defence Production and Ministry of Science and Technology for locally manufacturing ventilators, face mask, hand sanitisers and other medical equipment. The Ministry of Science and Technology possessed the capability to push the country forward on the path of progress, he maintained.
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The prime minister said surge in demand of medical equipments as a result of Coronavirus outbreak made us realize the we had the potential to manufacture ventilators, hand santisers and other equipments, it also made us realize that our healthcare system drastically required uplifting.
“We would still have been dependent on foreign countries for importing ventilators as we never thought that the country which is powered with nuclear technology can build ventilators as well.
“Self-confidence and self-belief propelled a nation to make progress. Unfortunately, we lack self-confidence. Pakistan was proceeding on the journey of progress in 1960s and then we saw the complete system collapsing before our eyes because of massive and rampant corruption,” he said.
On strict lockdown, he said countries with poor population may have bad affects of it. “Complete lockdown in India and Singapore has had bad affects.”
