As most of state run organizations witnessed deterioration in recent years, health sector was also one of the poorly performing sectors especially in remote and rural areas.
Dutifulness, punctuality, availability of equipment and medicines as well as the administrative structure needed overall revamping as people pin great hopes from the newly sworn in government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Although the PTI government led by Imran Khan had carried out the legacy of past PML-N government on introducing health cards, yet its un-prudent usage not only exerted extra burden on national kitty but also made way for private hospitals to earn money massively. As billions of rupees were going to private hospitals, a skeletal budget was allocated for public sector health institutions that left in miserable condition with sagas of poor treatment and non-availability of facilities roaming all around.“What I experienced during ailment of grandson is painful. I had to run from pillar to post in pain and agony to get the child treated. But, even after relentless efforts, we could not save him,” remarked Rana Munawar Khan, a Faisalabad based social activist.
He narrated that his 8-year-old grandson was admitted to Children Hospital due to high fever. After a few days doctors told that the patient was in critical condition and needed a ventilator. “And I was astonished when the doctors told there was no ventilator at the Children Hospital and asked to shift him to another hospital.”
“So we approached Allied Hospital and after much effort we secured a slot on an overloaded ventilator where already two patients were under treatment,” he said. “But another painful situation awaited us when we started searching doctor’s prescribed injections.”
“We could not get injections full doze at any of nearby private medical stores. Only five injections out of 20 could be managed at hospital’s store. But amidst all this hassle the child expired,” he said.
“I understand that death is a reality and everybody going to a hospital is not bound to recover. But, my contention is proper treatment and facilities at our health centers,” he added.
Now, when important facilities like Allied Hospital-I lacked medicines and proper facilities, how taxing the task of revamping healthcare system could be. Despite that Pakistan was already facing multiple healthcare issues, the previous government could not erect even a single facility during its four years tenure.
According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan was badly hit by hypertension, cardiac, diabetic, hepatitis and gastroenteritis diseases and its healthcare infrastructure and overloaded hospitals were seemingly inadequate to cope with this situation. Severe financial crunch is another hindrance on way to providing health facilities at masses doorstep.
“Our government hospitals are over loaded. Per capita hospitals availability figure is alarming supplemented by dearth of resources and experts,” remarked health specialist, Dr. Anas Khan. “Although the governments try to improve this system, yet lack of finances hampers their efforts.”
He said when staff and medicines are not available at rural healthcare centers, even patients suffering from minor diseases had to approach the city hospitals that enhances load at these facilities.
“Therefore, we need to make fully vibrant, our primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare system by providing professionals, basic treatment and testing facilities,” he urged.
The available data shows 333 BHUs, 238 Dispensaries, 37 RHCs, 14 THQ, 5 DHQ and 6 Teaching Hospitals in Faisalabad division and the number of patients visiting in emergency was increasing at 27.34% at DHQ, 47.31% at THQ and 6.14% at Teaching Hospitals annually. Therefore, revival of BHUs and RHCs can also help a lot to reduce load on main facilities.
“The provincial government and health department are fully cognizant of this situation and taking all possible steps to better health facilities,” stated a spokesman of the health department.
“The government has initiated revamping of hospitals and this project was being completed on war-footing,” he said. “In the next phase, the treatment facilities would be enhanced by adding new machinery and equipment in addition to expanding capacity of hospitals, dispensaries, RHCs and BHUs.”
The challenges of healthcare system direly need actionable strategies for collaborative transformation and removing infrastructure discrepancies between urban and rural areas to divide patients load and ensure better healthcare.
“We need a holistic approach to reform this sector by ensuring ample funding, infrastructure development and adequate trained workforce,” recommended Dr. Sumera Riaz, Associate Professor Community Medicine at The University of Faisalabad (TUF).
“Technological gap is another problem due to uneven integration of digital health solutions that hampers advancement in telemedicine, electronic health records and data analytics,” she said. “Then we also need massive awareness campaigns on better health initiatives and effective regulatory frameworks for quality assurance.”
She proposed public private collaboration for resource mobilization, enhance service delivery and broaden coverage besides partnerships with global health organizations and donor agencies for funding, technical expertise and best practices in healthcare management.
Since the challenge is enormous, a collective and coordinated approach was imperative to transform and strengthen our healthcare. We can forge a resilient and responsive healthcare ecosystem by enhancing financial sustainability, managing infrastructure gaps, improving regulatory system and raising awareness on importance of healthcare.