RAWALPINDI: Pakistan needs to improve primary healthcare in order to improve health statistics, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services (NHS) Dr Zafar Mirza said on Wednesday.

Dr Mirza also said measures were needed to promote family medicine through faculty development, medicine development, policy reform and targeted research.

“There are, on average, only three family physicians in the country to cater the needs of about 10,000 people. The numbers need to be enhanced and the ‘bulk of general practitioners’ need additional training and incentives,” he said.

Dr Mirza was speaking during the opening ceremony of a two day conference on family medicine titled ‘Building Primary Care Capacity: Pakistan’s Critical Need’ organised by the Higher Education Commission, the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) and Rawalpindi Medical University.

Two-day conference on building primary care capacity begins

The conference aims to identify actionable items needed to enhance life expectancy and health outcomes in the country. These include fostering training programmes and policies for the comprehensive development of family medicine, investing in public health and health systems, and initiating a programme for training nurses.

“It is hard for the poor to pay for healthcare services at private hospitals. Pakistan is unfortunately near the top of the list of countries with negative health indications,” Dr Mirza said.

He said that efforts are needed to improve the quality of healthcare facilities at all levels and criticised the high rate of injections administered in the country.

Dr Mirza said the prime minister’s vision for universal health coverage has three components: every citizen must have access to health services, the government should pay the expenses of those who are unable and the quality of services should be increased.

He added that the government’s Pakistan health diaspora initiative, Yaraan-i-Watan, is committed to giving Pakistani doctors overseas a platform to contribute to the country’s health sector.

HEC Chairman Tariq Banuri said the commission was committed to ensuring the quality of medical education while increasing access.

He said an integrated approach is needed towards investing in the healthcare system, including family health, tertiary care, environmental health, community health and nursing.

“The healthcare system needs to reach the people, putting the people first instead of merely infrastructural growth,” he said.

APPNA President Dr Naheed Usmani emphasised the importance of healthcare to achieve health-related goals. She said that Pakistan needs to train primary healthcare providersthrough a family medicine residency module and standard examinations.

Dr Usmani said that Pakistan’s health indicators are worse than other South Asian countries. The life expectancy in men is 66 and in women, 67, while the mortality rate under five is 69 by 1,000 and the maternity mortality rate is 140 by 100,000.

Pakistan only spends 2.7pc of its GDP on the health sector, she added. She said effective childcare medical facilities are needed to decrease the child mortality rate and the promotion of public education on communicable diseases.

Keynote speaker Dr Faisal Sultan spoke about the vision of the Prime Minister’s Healthcare Taskforce on family medicine, saying family medicine requires quality healthcare wherein preventive and curative healthcare are integrated.

He highlighted the importance of effective local governance to develop a family medicine framework, monitor its functionality and administer its needs. He said there should be flexibility in resource allocation to suit local needs.

Pakistan is a nurse-short country, so steps are needed to increase the number of nurses according to the country’s requirements, he said, adding that a milli0n nurses are needed but Pakistan only has 100,000.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2020