Minister attends rescuers passing-out ceremony

LAHORE, Feb 24 (APP):Minister for National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar Saturday said that rescuers were the brave sons of soil, who put their lives in danger to save the lives of others.
Addressing the passing-out ceremony of around 1,300 male and female rescuers from Punjab, held at Emergency Services Academy here, she said that she herself witnessed excellent professionalism, exhibited by rescuers during accidents, floods and other disasters.
She congratulated Director General Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue-1122) Dr Rizwan Naseer and his team over devotion and continuous struggle to provide timely emergency care to the victims of accidents, emergencies and disasters.
She said that under the leadership of Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, the province was moving towards prosperity.
The minister said that the credit goes to the Punjab government that emergency service had been established at district level, and further expansion was continuing at tehsils  level rapidly.
She said that the Punjab government had ensured merit and transperancy due to which performance of provincial departments
had significantly been improved, adding that Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif was putting in all efforts to serve the people of province.
Saira Afzal Tarar urged the rescuers to perform their duties with responsibility and courage, adding that training standard could further be raised to meet requirements of international standards.
Speaking on the occasion, Rescue 1122 DG Dr Rizwan Naseer congratulated the rescuers on completion of their professional emergency management training and appreciated Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif for expansion of the service to all districts and tehsils of the province.
He said that the Emergency Services Academy had trained over 20,000 rescuers from Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Balochistan and Aman Foundation from Karachi since its establishment.
On this occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was
signed between National Ambulance Service College (NASC),
Ireland and the Emergency Services Academy to maintain
emergency service as per the international standards through
third party evaluation by NASC, Ireland.
Under this agreement NASC would monitor the ongoing training of emergency medical technicians, carry out examination and practical evaluation of the courses on non-profit basis.
Another MoU was also signed between National Highway & Motorway Police (NH&MP) and Rescue 1122. Both departments
would provide technical assistance in training.
Earlier, the passing-out cadets demonstrated their professional skills of emergency management during mock exercises of deep well rescue, water rescue, firefighting,
urban search and rescue, rescue from confined spaces & rescue
from height. These Cadets have been given specialized medical,
rescue, firefighting and height rescue training in 1st phase and specialized training courses were arranged for them in the fields of communication, medical first responder (MFR), collapsed structure search and rescue (CSSR), communication & incident command system.
Provincial Parliamentary Secretary Asghar Ali Manda, NH&MP DIG Farhan Baig, Prof Education Manager of National Ambulance Service College, Dublin, Ireland Dr Shane Knox also spoke on the occasion.