July 02, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 27, 1429

KARACHI, July 1: Senior office-bearers of the Pakistan Medical Association have said that the government is neither committed to addressing problems facing the healthcare system nor has any vision to overcome them.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, they said it seemed the present government had failed to address various health-related issues, including career structures and incentives for medical professionals, human and financial resources for healthcare services, preventive aspects of human health and quality of health education in the country.

The press conference was jointly held by Dr Habibur Rahman Soomro, president of the PMA and Dr Aziz Khan Tank, president the PMA’s Karachi chapter.

They said 70 per cent of Pakistan’s population lived in rural areas, where primary health-care delivery services had never been satisfactory. “The majority of our population has no access to emergency health-care and emergency obstetrical care,” they added.

Talking about the clean drinking water and sanitation facilities, Dr Soomro said the majority of the population was not living in an ideal situation and as such were prone to contracting bacterial infections, which caused morbidity and mortality both in children and adults. “One child dies every minute from measles, mumps, chicken pox, diarrhoea or acute respiratory infection,” he added.

On the other hand, he said, 34 per cent of mothers in the country were underweight, while 65 per cent of women were anemic.

The PMA leaders said the government’s spending on public health had further been reduced in the new budgets of the country, which was a matter of concern.

Moreover, the inequitable distribution of whatever resources were available in the health sector also indicated that 90 per cent of the population was being served with 15 per cent of the health resources, said Dr Tank, demanding that rural health centres be strengthened.

They also described the health-related development in the country as pathetic and said the government had not shown any commitment to addressing health issues and it was a pity that it had yet to dedicate a full-fledged health minister at the federal level.

They also referred to the workings of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and said it was the failure of the institution that medical students had been unable to get a quality and meaningful education at private medical colleges despite spending exorbitant amount on money there. The PMA leaders said medical education in public medical colleges was also largely on the decline.

They criticised the recent entry tests for MBBS and dental education programmes conducted by the Dow University of Health Sciences and expressed support for the stance of the Sindh chief minister that all admission tests for medical colleges be held after the declaration of HSC annual examination results.

They demanded the induction of genuine stakeholders, instead of vested interests, both from the public and private sectors, into the task force set up by the federal health ministry.