LAHORE – The Punjab government will launch the Emergency Rescue 1122 service on Motorways in December this year. The University of Health Sciences (UHS) will assist in training the rescue personnel.
Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique made this announcement while chairing a meeting at the UHS on Monday. He emphasized the importance of utilizing universities as think tanks, a resource previously underutilized, and stated that UHS’s support would be sought continually in the future.
Earlier, the minister visited the UHS facilitation center, where Vice Chancellor Professor Ahsan Waheed Rathore briefed him on the services provided to students. Rafique interacted with students at the center and expressed his admiration for the facilities, noting that hundreds of students are served daily. He highlighted the presence of 32 Ph.D. faculty members at UHS and suggested increasing this number. He also announced plans to visit the university’s new campus next week.
UHS VC thanked the minister for his visit, noting that the facilitation center serves 300 to 400 students and visitors daily. This center is the university’s first point of contact, providing services related to degrees, registration, and examinations. He stated that university laboratories are equipped with the latest equipment and have the potential to become centers of excellence in diagnostic services. With government support, the laboratories could function as a referral lab for all of Punjab, he opined.
Professor Rathore also highlighted the role of UHS in the standardization of medical, dental, and nursing education. He advocated for allied health sciences and pharmacy education to be separated from general universities to achieve similar standardization.