Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar, addressed the 196-nation World Health Assembly, calling for greater emphasis on equity in access to health-care and people-centred set of universal and transformative goals and targets for the future. The Sustainable Development Goals, she said with strong focus on equity will serve to ensure that “no one is left behind’.

According to her Health is positioned as a major contributor to the other Sustainable Development Goals, and reciprocally benefits from progress towards the other Sustainable Development Goals.
“The challenges we face are related to building health systems capable of providing integrated, people-centred care”, she said.

“Addressing new health priorities without compromising existing programmes requires careful balance. The non-communicable diseases are becoming a global challenge in developed and developing countries alike. They will sooner or later overwhelm the existing health system capacities unless rapid investments are made in disease prevention and health promotion. Noting the need to strengthen linkages between health, development and humanitarian work, a growing concern in many countries will be how to better integrate humanitarian and development assistance”, she remarked.

The minister informed that Pakistan was taking strides in prioritising universal health coverage through launching the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme for the population living below the poverty line. The programme was being implemented across the country in phases and was providing free of cost treatment to hundreds of thousands of families through both public and private health facilities. Pakistan is giving attention to implementation of International Health Regulations to stop spread of disease across borders in a globalised world.