KARACHI, Sep 8: Health status of a population has direct correlation with the level of public spending on health, said Dr Amanullah Khan, Coordinator of the Save the Children-Pakistan in his keynote address at the annual conference of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA).

He said his stance was well evident in Pakistan, where the allocation for health sector over the last 10 years remained between 0.67 and 0.8 per cent of GDP as against the internationally recommended four per cent.

“Poverty and ill-health are interrelated… principles of equity in health are derived from the fields of philosophy, ethics, economics, medicine and public health,” he said.

He observed that 50 per cent of the meager national health budget was mistreated, ineffectively handled or pilfered and the core issue was poor management.

Dr Khan stressed that health allocation must be raised to 4 per cent of the GDP; local governments should be bound to spend a certain amount of their budget on healthcare and provision from Zakat and Baitul Mal should be increased.

Dr Rasheed Jooma, Director-General of the federal ministry of health said that a large number of people stood deprived of even the basic medical facilities in Pakistan.

He observed that healthcare had become a commercial enterprise and the access to healthcare facilities depended on the purchasing power. He was of the view that a large portion of the donors’ money was misused.

Dr Qaiser Bengali said that health and education should be a national priority. He criticised the authorities for neglecting the health sector, observing that there was a huge gap between the budgetary allocations for health and defence sectors.

Dr Abdul Bari Khan highlighted the role of NGOs in healthcare delivery.

PIMA president Dr Abdul Aziz, Dr Misbah-ul-Aziz, chairman of the conference and the former PIMA president, and several other experts spoke at the moot that also featured a plenary session on equity in healthcare.—APP