PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is yet to announce health policy and set forth its goals and objectives in line with its manifesto and national and international commitments, experts say.

They said that the province needed its own health policy especially after the passage of 18th Amendment as it made health a provincial subject. The government was required to formulate its own policy and implement the same, they added.

The experts said that before the passage of 18th Amendment in 2010, the provinces received guidelines from federal government regarding health programmes. Although the federal government didn’t have any policy since 1994, yet it managed health affairs in line with laws drafted from time to time, they said.

“The province’s health system is being run on Health Sector Strategy (2010-2017), which is not substitute to a proper policy,” they said. They added that federal government started an exercise to facilitate the provincial governments to develop their respective policies with a view to utilise their resources in a systematic manner. Early this week, a meeting of all health officials from the entire province took place wherein they were asked to initiate work on the policies.

The PTI-led government is bringing about amendments in health-related laws to improve patients’ care in the province but it is yet to take measures to formulate a comprehensive policy and outline its mechanism to address the health-related issues.

Experts say the province needs its own policy after passage of 18th Amendment

In some health areas, such as Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Maternal Neonatal Child Health, Emergency Care, Primary and Secondary Healthcare, the government required a policy as to how to cope with the situation.

The government has failed to meet the Millennium Development Goals set forth by the United Nations to be met by December 2015. Now, the 8 MDGs will get replaced by the UN Sustainable Development Goals under which the countries have been asked to meet the 17 goals by 2030.

A comprehensive health policy will also attract international donor agencies, which want to give technical as well as financial assistance to the government help it meet the SDGs. Many donor organisations want to help the violence-stricken province and improve health indicators but they are waiting for a clear indication about government’s plan regarding the desired goals.

Not only SDGs but donors can be attracted by adopting a written policy to get strengthened its existing system and boost up of healthcare facilities.

According to experts, the government will be able to know about its exact number of quantum of diseases, allocation of resources and available facilities and human resources, once it puts in place a policy an explain its vision on how to deal with the issues.

“Under a policy, the government can go for construction of more hospitals, medical colleges and other institutions in a planned manner,” they said. Presently, there is no systematic approach to pool the resources and improve health system through judicious allocation of resources.

For instance, there are facilities like MRI, CT scanners etc at the district headquarters hospitals but the patients come to Peshawar due to non-availability of specialist doctors there. Most of the specialist doctors are concentrated in Peshawar for years and the people in other districts face problem in getting their services there.

Owing to absence of health policy, the provincial government doesn’t know about its progress on the MDGs. Most of the doctors and staff are employed in urban areas while most people live in rural areas.

By putting in place a policy, the government would be able to know about its progress and weaknesses and take further steps for improvement. Currently, reliance of government seems on a few teaching hospitals and leaving aside the improvement of the entire health infrastructure.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play