Punjab is transitioning its public healthcare system to a fully digital and paperless model as part of wide-ranging digital health reforms, announced by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. The initiative aims to enhance patient care, streamline hospital operations, and strengthen accountability across the province’s hospitals.
At a conference with hospital CEOs and Medical Superintendents in Lahore, Maryam Nawaz administered an integrity and zero-corruption pledge to senior officials, emphasizing technology-driven governance as the key to improving service delivery. District and tehsil headquarters hospitals have already transitioned to paperless operations, while health facilitation services are being fully digitalized.
To ensure performance accountability, the government has introduced Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for hospital leadership and launched a new Performance Evaluation Report (PER) system to monitor doctors’ work. Monitoring and Evaluation Assistants, administrators, and procurement officers will be deployed to streamline hospital operations, while emergency wards are now integrated with Safe City surveillance cameras. Mobile phone usage by doctors during duty hours has also been restricted.
The provincial health budget has risen from Rs. 399 billion to Rs. 630 billion, with over 1,500 new doctors inducted into public hospitals and Rs. 22 billion in outstanding dues cleared to ensure uninterrupted medicine supply. The chief minister directed hospital administrations to maintain essential medicines, functional medical equipment, cleanliness, and efficient patient flow through color-coded triage bays.
Pharmaceutical representatives are banned from hospitals, and vigilance teams will monitor healthcare facilities across Punjab to ensure compliance. Maryam Nawaz stressed that no resident should be forced to travel to another city for treatment, highlighting that public hospitals primarily serve the poor and vulnerable citizens.
Maryam Nawaz also celebrated the successful completion of free heart surgeries for more than 10,000 children under the Chief Minister Children Heart Surgery Programme, benefiting children from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan, Sindh, and federal areas. She inaugurated a new intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital Lahore, met patients and families, and oversaw an increase in cardiac surgeons and physicians to meet growing demand.
