ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has finalised preparations for briefing Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the ministry’s performance on Friday.

For the last few days, the newly elected prime minister has been getting briefings from various ministries, divisions and departments on their performance.

Stakeholders in the health sector say there is not much with which the ministry can convince the premier that its ancillary departments are performing well. An official of the NHS ministry said the ministry had performed worse when it comes to medicines as exports are decreasing and imports are increasing.

During a press conference in June this year, the Pakistan Young Pharmacist Association had said that according to the State Bank of Pakistan, pharma exports had dropped from $220 million to $120 million in the last few years and imports had increased from $419 million to $676 million.

The ministry official also pointed to the issue of cardiac stents that had arisen early this year. A large amount of unregistered stents were recovered from the Mayo Hospital Lahore in January and in some cases, patients were told stents had been installed in their arteries when they were not.

The Supreme Court had taken notice of the issue and directed for prices to be fixed for cardiac stents which could not be done.

The official said the issue of medical colleges was also not encouraging. This year, the ministry had forwarded 20 applications for new colleges after scrutiny to the Pakistan Medical and Dental College and all 20 were sent back due to gross deficiencies.

“The ministry can only claim it has decreased the number of polio cases, which is being done with the cooperation of UN agencies and that it has been playing a role in the implementation of the PM Health Insurance Program,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2017