Pakistan Opens Health Facility Named For Turkish Leader

Pakistan on Friday inaugurated a new health facility at a hospital named after Turkey's president and located in the northeastern Punjab province.

Imran Khan, Pakistan's prime minister, led the grand opening of the newly constructed facility at Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital Trust, raising the hospital's total capacity to 400 beds.

The hospital in the Muzaffargarh district, located some 380 kilometers (236 miles) from Lahore, was given as a gift from Turkey to Pakistan in 2014. It began its operations in July 2014 with 60 beds, adding another 40 a year later.

Punjab officials in January 2017 launched an expansion plan aiming to add 250 more beds to the hospital's existing capacity at a cost of 9 billion rupees (nearly $60 million).

The hospital provides free healthcare to all patients irrespective of their backgrounds.

Khan, in his remarks, thanked Ankara for its cooperation to improve healthcare facilities in Pakistan, state-run Pakistan Television reported.

Apart from Muzaffargarh, the trust is running five hospitals in Lahore -- the capital of Punjab -- and one in Multan.

It is also handling the management of two major blood transfusion centers in the Multan and Bahawalpur districts, under an agreement inked with the provincial government in April 2017. -