Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday emphasised the need for setting up South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (Saarc) hospitals in every member nation for providing quality health services to the people of the region.
Addressing the gathering after inaugurating the Annual conference of the Saarc Surgical Care Society in Jalandhar, the chief minister said that setting up of Saarc hospitals was the need of the hour as it would go a long way in delivering best health care facilities besides promoting people-to-people contact in the region.
Badal said renowned surgeons and doctors from the member countries of the regional group should offer their services to these hospitals, with cheap and quality treatment be provided to the common man. Offering land and other facilities to set up one such hospital in the state, he said the SAD-BJP government was duty bound to fulfill such a noble cause. The chief minister also impressed upon the Saarc surgeons who had converged for the occasion, to make Punjab a base of their institution for carrying out research and other activities related to this pious profession.
Laying thrust on strengthening of ties between the medical fraternities of the SAARC nations, Badal said it would benefit the people of the under- developed/developing nations by providing them access to quality health-care services.