In a sweeping overhaul of public healthcare, Maryam Nawaz has announced the transition of Punjab’s government hospitals to a fully digital and paperless system, marking one of the province’s most ambitious health sector reforms to date.
Addressing a high-level conference of hospital Chief Executive Officers and Medical Superintendents in Lahore, the chief minister framed the move as a cornerstone of technology-driven governance aimed at enhancing patient care, streamlining hospital management, and ensuring transparency across the province.
District and tehsil headquarters hospitals have already shifted to paperless operations, while health facilitation services are being rapidly digitalized. An integrity and zero-corruption pledge was administered to senior health officials, with the chief minister underscoring accountability as central to reform.
To tighten oversight, the government has introduced Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for hospital leadership and launched a new Performance Evaluation Report (PER) system to monitor doctors’ output and efficiency. Monitoring and Evaluation Assistants, procurement officers, and administrators will be deployed to improve operational flow, while emergency wards have been linked to Safe City surveillance cameras to bolster security and monitoring. Authorities have also restricted mobile phone usage by doctors during duty hours.
Punjab’s health budget has seen a substantial increase—from Rs. 399 billion to Rs. 630 billion—reflecting the scale of the reforms. More than 1,500 doctors have been inducted into public hospitals, and Rs. 22 billion in outstanding dues has been cleared to prevent disruptions in medicine supply.
Hospital administrations have been directed to ensure uninterrupted availability of essential medicines, functional equipment, strict cleanliness standards, and improved patient management through color-coded triage systems. Pharmaceutical representatives have been barred from entering hospitals, while vigilance teams will conduct regular inspections to ensure compliance with new standards.
“No citizen should be compelled to travel to another city for treatment,” the chief minister said, emphasizing that public hospitals primarily cater to the poor and vulnerable segments of society.
In a parallel development, Maryam Nawaz highlighted the completion of free heart surgeries for over 10,000 children under the Chief Minister Children Heart Surgery Programme. Beneficiaries included patients from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan, Sindh, and federal areas.
During her visit to the Children’s Hospital Lahore, she inaugurated a new intensive care unit, met young patients and their families, and reviewed measures to expand cardiac care capacity through the recruitment of additional surgeons and physicians.
Officials say the digital transformation is expected to redefine healthcare governance in Punjab, setting a precedent for other provinces seeking to modernize public service delivery through technology and strict accountability mechanisms.
