LAHORE: Punjab Health Foundation (PHF) in going to start smart loans scheme for young doctors.
The loans would be sanctioned on personal guarantee, Chief Minister’s Adviser on Health Khwaja Salman Raffique told reporters after a meeting of the PHF board of directors (BoDs).
Mr Rafique said the BoDs had approved the scheme for young doctors while agreeing in principal to provide smart loans to the allied health professionals. The limit of these loans would be up to Rs700,000.
The PHF is already providing interest-free loans to doctors between Rs1.2 million and Rs2.5 million.
The meeting approved setting up of vision clinics to overcome blindness and early diagnoses of eye diseases. These clinics would be set up with the collaboration of the Institute of Ophthalmology of the King Edward Medical University.
The adviser said the loan would be provided with a view to provide medical cover through qualified doctors to the people at their doorsteps to eradicate quackery from society and to extend self-employment opportunities to unemployed doctors. He said that within two months or so, loans of Rs40 million had been disbursed while Rs7.5 million had been recovered from the defaulters.
PHF Managing Director Dr Suhail Saqlain informed the meeting the PHF was being restructured and revamped. The Punjab Information Technology Board was helping the PHF to automate its system. In future, the process of sanctioning of loans would be paperless and all formalities would be carried out online.
The adviser distributed cheques of interest-free loans of Rs10m among 10 doctors.
