ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar said that healthcare remains top most priority agenda in the social sector and the National Health Vision 2016-25 is a testament to that. The health vision was developed by Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation & Coordination (MNHSRC) to provide a common strategic vision to guide the health sector in achieving universal health coverage through efficient, effective, equitable, accessible and affordable health services to its entire populace. The minister said this while addressing a special event in connection with World Health Day in Islamabad on Friday. “Our government launched Prime Minister’s National Health Programme in 2015 with the objective to provide universal health coverage through a cashless health insurance scheme for the poor to enable them to access needed health-care services. By the Grace of Almighty, the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme continues to provide services for the beneficiaries across the country,” Saira Afzal Tarar said. The minister said 3 million poor families living in 41 focused districts across Pakistan are currently accessing indoor health care services from 135 empanelled hospitals. The programme is being expanded to eventually cover all districts of the country. She said that tuberculosis was undoubtedly one of Pakistan’s biggest health crises. It kills almost 44,000 Pakistanis every year and causes considerable economic losses. Pakistan commits to end TB epidemic by 2030 and MNHSRC has developed an action plan for next three years with a total cost of $500 million of which only half of the funding has been committed. It is suggested to declare TB as a “priority” disease and should be discussed at the highest forum of CCI in order to sensitise the governments of its critical nature and resource mobilisation. She said malnutrition with a prevalence of 45 percent in our children is a national problem, which is being carried on to next generations with all its negative impact. The cumulative effect of lost manpower hours, healthcare expenses and lower productivity due to malnutrition in monetary terms in Pakistan is $7.6 billion or around 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product every year. Considering the crisis situation in nutrition, the matter may be brought on the agenda of CCI to achieve a multi sectoral coordinated response. She further said Pakistan was now the sixth most populous country in the world. Decline in population growth rate has been slow, the current population growth rate of 2.4 percent per annum is one of the highest in the world while contraceptive prevalence of only 35 percent is much lower than other countries. Any increase in health budget actually is diluted by ever increasing number of individuals added in the pool of population annually. Though ministry has been taking appropriate measures to address the issues however in order to further prioritise this very critical area it is suggested to have a threadbare discussion in CCI to formulise robust policies and allocate resources. Tarar said a major challenge in Pakistan was varying estimates of health indicators, which exist in the country. These are derived from the routine reporting while others pertain mainly to regular/episodic national and sub-national level surveys marked variances have been recorded across these different sources with some reflecting more than 75 percent coverage in one survey whereas another survey shows 20 percent coverage in the same region. These stark differences are commonly attributable to the varying methodologies of assessment and biases. Tarar said the Ministry of National Health has started working with Bill Gates Foundation, World Health Organisation and the International Health Matrix & Evaluation to improve the data quality over last few years and have developed a comprehensive dashboard but would require continuous improvements in times to come. It is proposed that the government should commit to have one Pakistan National Health Survey of international standard at a two-three year interval covering consensus indicators all across Pakistan through its own resources. The finance ministry is requested to pledge the required resources in the upcoming budget. The minister said the MNHSRC is of the view that resources for health in the federal and provincial budgetary allocations should be enhanced in subsequent budgets in order to have a meaningful impact on the health indicators and bringing these at a satisfactory level. Published in Daily Times, April 14th 2018.