Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Monday officially launched ‘’Chief Minister Children Heart Surgery Program’ for the free treatment and surgery of children with heart disease, during her visit to Lahore’s Children’s Hospital.
‘Maryam Ki Masihaai’ aims to provide free treatment to over 5,000 children every year. She also distributed “Child Surgery Cards” to children suffering from heart disease during her visit to the hospital.
‘The operation of a sick child will be done in a private hospital if there is no place in the government hospitals,’ she said. She interacted with the sick children and wished them prayers for their well-being.
The initiative will be rolled out in two phases. In the first phase, the scheme will be available in six government hospitals and selected private hospitals across the province. Children will receive free heart surgeries at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), Children Hospital Lahore, Children Hospital Multan, and Rawalpindi Cardiology Institute. The second phase will expand the program to hospitals in Wazirabad, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, and Sargodha. A dedicated dashboard has been set up to track the development of the Children’s Heart Surgery Program.
Her statement was, that she felt happy to launch this program as a mother, not as a chief minister and she said that she feels the grief of parents on the loss of their child.
According to Maryam Nawaz, roughly 5,000 children die each year owing to a lack of such facilities, and this program is the first of its type in Pakistan, benefiting children in KPK, Sindh, and Balochistan as well.
