ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf said on Monday that it would increase budget allocation for the health sector to 2.6 per cent of GDP from current 0.8 per cent after coming to power.

Launching his party’s ‘health vision’, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said national indicators were horrific because half of the country’s population was suffering from malnutrition.

He said his party’s policy reform unit took one and a half years to formulate the ‘health vision’ after holding consultations with associations of doctors, nurses, paramedics and pharmacists and patient organisations and patients.

He claimed that the implementation of a policy required the will of a political government, but all parties except the PTI lacked courage and will to implement their policies.

He said the ‘health vision’ has been formulated keeping in view the poor governance of health system which had resulted in shocking figures about maternal and child health, wide inequities between urban and rural population, gender discrimination, neglect of primary and preventive healthcare and a low coverage of health by the public sector.

The PTI chief said the ‘health vision’ was the commitment of his party to ensure during its five-year tenure a 100 per cent improvement in coverage by the public sector, take a paradigm shift towards preventive healthcare, reduce the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases through sustained preventive programmes, increase public health funding from 0.8 per cent to 2.6 per cent of GDP, decentralise and depoliticise health governance, prioritise primary healthcare and develop a thoroughly reliable and integrated health information system for evidence-based planning and decision-making.

The ‘health vision’ is aimed at achieving the millennium development goals relating to maternal, neonatal, infant and child mortality, a fully devolved national health governance system with solid links to the community.

It will sustain a robust primary healthcare network in rural areas and ensure availability of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities across rural and urban Pakistan.

It also envisages initiation of national programmes on prevention of blindness, genetic disorders and mental illnesses, developing a need-based workforce of health and ensuring a proper service structure.

The ‘health vision’ will strengthen the regulatory authorities with regard to medical services.