KARACHI, Dec 13: Provision of basic healthcare facilities to citizens, regardless of gender and ethnic discrimination, is a basic human right but in most of the countries, including the United States, it is ignored and considered as a privilege.

This was stated by Dr Robert C. Myrtle, professor at the University of Southern California, while delivering a lecture on “Disparities in international healthcare and its standards” at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs.

According to him, good health of citizens was directly linked to government efforts and steps taken by the states for keeping their citizens healthy including provision of safe water, food, cleanliness and physical fitness facilities.

“However, many countries do not care allocating much for provision of healthcare facilities to their masses,” he said and alleged that most of the funding done by the United Nations for healthcare facilities was done on political grounds.

Dr Myrtle also spoke about brain-drain of doctors from developing countries to the developed world, especially to the US, saying it was unfortunate that doctors and nurses, who received free medical education, were serving in other countries instead of providing healthcare facilities to their own people.

The lecture was followed by a question-answer session and the participants from different walks of life inquired about his suggestions for improving healthcare facilities in Pakistan. —PPI