LAHORE, May 31: Unless effective measures are taken in the budget to control prices of loose-pack medicines, which affect 90 per cent of 160 million people of this country, no matter how much amount the government allocates for health sector, commoners will continue to suffer.

“The prices of loose-pack medicines like paracetamol (for fever), biclofenac soqium (pain) and indomet halin (pain) have increased by more than 200 per cent during the last one year that shows the government’s inability to control price hike,” says Dr Mohammad Amer, who runs a clinic inside the walled city.

He says commoners are least bothered about the percentage of the GDP the government allocates for health sector as their major concern is the availability of medicines and health services at affordable rates.

“The government should have an idea about the purchasing power of commoners under the present circumstances,” he adds.

Mahmood Ahmed, a patient, told this reporter at the out-patient department of the Mayo Hospital that pharmaceutical companies created an artificial shortage of essential medicines to increase their price without any check.

“I was diagnosed with tuberculosis and it was difficult to find a steroid (prednisolone) at any medical store around the hospital. However, a paramedical staff told me to visit a Shah Alam market shop where the medicine was available at double its actual price.”

Munawwar Bibi, another patient, also complains of high rates of different diagnostic tests. She says there has been no control over rates charged by the private diagnostic laboratories. The rates are hiked every day.

Patients desperately want the government to evolve a system to check price hike of medicines and diagnostic tests, she says.

“Well if the government is sincere in providing relief to the people in the budget, it must check increase in the price of health facilities.”

University of Health Sciences (UHS) board of governors chairman Prof Mahmood Ahmed believes that unless the government facilitates general practitioners (GPs), medical care system cannot be improved. He says 80 per cent of the medical care in the country is provided by GPs. Therefore, there must be something for them in the forthcoming budget.

Prof Ahmed says GPs should be provided with interest-free loans for setting up their clinics as this will help gradual eradication of quackery. There is also a need to train GPs regarding intelligent referral of their patients to hospitals and patients’ awareness about different health issues, he adds.

The budget should have funds for up-gradation of tehsil hospitals, which must be equipped like major hospitals and doctors serving there must be given incentives in the form of promotion and other benefits, he says.

He also suggests that an amount must be allocated in the budget for setting up public hospitals in different parts of major cities to reduce burden on teaching hospitals.

Pakistan Medical Association’s Lahore president Prof Imtiaz Rasool says last year the government had allocated 0.6 per cent of the GDP for health sector while philanthropists had contributed five per cent of the GDP. It shows that provision of health facilities is not on priority list of the government.

He says ideally the government should earmark five per cent of the GDP for health in the budget and anything less than three per cent will be insufficient under the given circumstances.

Prof Rasool says the present health facilities have reduced the average age of citizens from 61-62 to 58-59 years because of increase in the incidence of diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and hepatitis.

He says the budget must focus on medical education as a great deal of effort is required to improve its standard. He says there has also been shortage of teaching staff. The amount must be allocated for establishing specialised hospitals like burn, cancer and trauma.

On the other hand, nurses also want something to be done in the budget to improve their working and living conditions. They say salaries as well as student-nursing allowance need to be increased on a priority basis, besides improving the service structure and eliminating the contract system.