To ensure world-class healthcare services in the state, Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Friday extended an invitation to the corporate hospitals to collaborate with the Government to provide quality healthcare services to the people at subsidized and affordable prices.

“This collaboration will not affect the general public and they will not have to pay any extra expenses as the government will only take the services of doctors of leading lights of healthcare providers or corporate hospitals at the Government health institutions to overcome the deficiency of super specialist services,” he clarified, while adding that this will be managed and funded by the Government.

Dr Balbir said that this initiative will also help in improving the healthcare services in under-served districts in the State. Corporate hospitals can also help by training doctors and paramedics staff, he said, adding that there is a lot of scope for telemedicine and artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector.

The Minister, presiding over an interactive session ‘Northern Region Roundtable on Healthcare Priorities of Punjab and the Way Forward’ organized by NATHEALTH — an apex body of all the healthcare stakeholders in India — at Mohali, said that Punjab Government is aiming to make medical education available for the larger section of society by making it more affordable and better in terms of quality.

He said that they are focusing on strengthening the three wings of healthcare — primary, secondary, and tertiary, along with establishing ‘CM di Yogshala’ for prevention.

Dr Balbir said that they have set up Aam Aadmi Clinics and also upgrading dispensaries in the State, which are enough to ensure primary care, while, sub-divisional and districts will be soon equipped with the latest radiology machines to take care of the secondary care and people can get X-rays, Ultra-Sound, MRI, CT Scan, etc done at these hospitals. To provide tertiary care, we are revamping all the Medical Colleges in the state, he added.