LAHORE – Punjab’s Health Ministers Khawaja Salman Rafique and Khawaja Imran Nazir visited the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Thursday, where they met a two-member delegation from the National Ambulance Service College, Dublin, Ireland.
The delegation, which included Robert Martin, Director of the National Ambulance Service, and Dr. Shane Knox, Director of Paramedicine, was on a three-day visit to Lahore to assess the quality of healthcare professional training programs in Punjab.
The training program is a joint effort by UHS, the National Ambulance Service College, and the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department. Under this initiative, instructors trained by Irish experts are providing life-saving skills training to 45,000 healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff, across 85 tehsil hospitals in Punjab.
The Irish delegation praised Punjab’s training program, calling it “extraordinary.” Robert Martin attributed the program’s success to strong project management and highlighted the positive feedback from trainees as an indicator of quality.
He shared an impactful encounter at Muridke Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, where a doctor credited the training with helping him save a colleague’s life. Dr. Shane Knox also commended the program’s record-keeping and digitalization as “impressive.”
In his address, Khawaja Salman Rafique remarked that the collaboration with the National Ambulance Service College began in 2017, with 30,000 health workers trained in life support during the first phase.
In 2022, the second phase was launched, and to date, 22,000 healthcare professionals have been trained. Rafique stressed the importance of these skills for health workers, particularly in emergency situations.
Khawaja Imran Nazir said that significant efforts are being made to enhance healthcare services at tehsil hospitals. He reiterated the Chief Minister’s vision for a disease-free, healthier Punjab, adding that 2,500 basic health units and 300 rural health centers are being revamped at a rapid pace.
Professor Dr. Ahsan Waheed Rathore announced that basic life support training is being incorporated into the curriculum of all university programs, enabling 140,000 students each year to learn life-saving skills.
