KARACHI      -     Public health institutions like Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) Karachi are among world’s best medical institutions for having services of top of the line medical professionals and state-of-the-art equipment like Cyberknife, Pet Scan and other facilities.

Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Ali Shalwani expressed these views while speaking at the inaugural session of the 54th Annual Symposium of JPMC on Wednesday.

However, he said that there was also need to further improve their image by creating awareness about quality health services being provided to the people of entire Pakistan.

“Fortunately, Pakistan has one of the best doctors in the world and they are working at top medical institutions around the world. We have institutions like JPMC in Karachi where people from across the country and abroad are arriving to avail quality medical treatment without any charge. All we need at the moment is to build image of our public health institutions and restore patients’ confidence in government-run health facilities”, said Iftikhar

Over 1,000 delegates from entire Pakistan and abroad are attending the five-day symposium, during which 36 workshops on different aspects of medical science, surgeries, interventions and treatments would be held daily till Sunday.

Shalwani said by providing latest and modern treatment facilities to the people of Pakistan under Public-Private Partnership, JPMC had set an example for other public health facilities in the province as well as the country and advised other public hospitals to learn from the experience of the JPMC to make world’s best facilities available to the patients with the help of philanthropists and civil society.

Later, responding to the queries of newsmen, he said children who were not vaccinated or those whose parents refused to do so, would be the focus of the next polio vaccination drive in Karachi in December this year. He added that there were 7-8 high risk UCs in Karachi, which would be given special attention to eradicate polio. Responding to another query, Commissioner Karachi said scientific approach was required to eliminate stray dogs from Karachi and added that cleanliness in Karachi to continue to get the city rid of heaps of garbage and prevent citizens from infectious diseases.