ISLAMABAD, June 13: The Economic Survey 2001-02 has estimated doctor-people ratio to be 1,516 people per doctor, 31,579 per dentists and 3,639 per nurse.

The report, which was released by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday, said at present the number of registered doctors in Pakistan was 96,248, dentists 4,622, nurses 40,114 and qualified health visitors 5,845.

Similarly, the population-bed ratio is 1,490 people per hospital bed in view of the availability of about 97,945 hospital beds in the country.

The report said presently health care in Pakistan was provided to the public through a vast infrastructure of health facilities consisting of 907 hospitals, 4,625 dispensaries, 5,230 basic health units and 879 maternity and child health centres.

The report said different health priority programmes with special focus on major public health problems of the country had been carried out. These include cancer treatment, AIDS prevention and malaria control programmes.

It said a new health policy with motto “Health for All” had already been announced.

During the year 2001-02, 40 basic health units (BHUs), 10 rural health centres (RHCs) and one urban centre have been built while 30 BHUs and 20 RHCs were upgraded. Besides, 3,300 new doctors, 250 dentists, 2,300 nurses and 5,000 paramedics have been trained.

The report said under the preventive programme, 8.5 million children had been immunized and 18 million packets of ORS distributed during 2001-02.

The total outlay on health sector for the outgoing fiscal year 2001-02 was Rs25.4 billion (Rs6.7 billion development expenditure and Rs18.7 billion current expenditure), which was 0.7 per cent of the GNP.