Overview
- The Punjab government, which decided Monday, instructed that a stroke centre be set up in every division and set targets to expand its provincial network.
- Forty primary stroke centres are already reported functional and officials have set a target to make 17 more centres operational by December.
- Provincial briefings say the Chief Minister’s Stroke Programme has saved 336 patients from death or permanent disability through timely treatment at designated centres.
- The 40 primary centres are said to have trained doctors and staff and hold 710 doses of the clot-busting drug tenecteplase (TNK), while plans call for neuroangiography suites this year at four teaching hospitals and comprehensive centres already operate in Lahore and Rawalpindi.
- Health officials say decentralising care should shorten the time to treatment and cut long-term disability, but the reported patient and stock figures come from government briefings and have not been independently verified.