ISLAMABAD: Health sector stakeholders at a meeting of a subcommittee of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) criticised the Global Fund for a lack of resources, and for giving more importance to the private sector as compared to the public sector.

They said the Fund should provide more funding to the government, and give more attention to government sector proposals.

The Global Fund is a financing institution that provides support to countries to respond to tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.

It gives a grant of $143 million for TB patients, of which $88m goes to the TB Control Programme, $40m goes to the Indus Hospital and $15m goes to NGOs. Medication worth $88m is distributed among patients; although tuberculosis treatment is costly, it is provided free of charge in Pakistan.

During the meeting, NHS Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch said $500m are required to address tuberculosis, but the Fund only provides $140m. However, he admitted that there are grey areas in the system, and the distribution method for funding needs to be improved.

A representative of the Punjab TB Programme said that the province would be free of TB by 2030 due to the efforts of the government and political will.

“However, it is strange that when we demand vehicles from the Global Fund our requests are turned down, but when the private sector demands vehicles from the Global Fund their requests are approved,” he said.

“We have been doing most of the work, but funds are released to the private sector. We have held camps in the industrial areas of Punjab and try to fund TB patients and provide them with proper treatment and medicine,” he added.

A representative from Balochistan said that they too were working to eradicate TB, but the government was not being given mobile vehicles.

A representative from the Sindh TB Control Programme claimed that his department had been treating 85pc of patients, while the private sector was only treating 15pc.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2017