The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Wednesday proposed that the health budget of Punjab should be raised to 4% of the GDP from its current 0.57% mark.
At a press conference on Wednesday, PMA presented several pre-budget suggestions to the Punjab government.
It praised the provincial government for raising its health budget to 43 billion while reserving an extra 5.2 billion for doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff.
PMA also advised the Punjab government to avoid policies which led to the lapse of 1.2 billion of the previous health budget and to reverse the budgetary allocation for primary and tertiary care from 20/80 to 80/20 in favour of
primary care.
PMA suggested setting up a ‘family planning fund’ to control the unbridled population growth and demanded immediate scrapping of the inefficient mobile health unit projects. The association proposed opening medical research institutes at district level close to private medical colleges.
It also advised the government to make all appointments at medical colleges strictly on merit. The press conference was attended by PMA Punjab President Professor Dr Ashraf Nizami, General Secretary Dr Akhter Rashid Malik, Lahore chapter President Dr M Tanveer Anwar, General Secretary Dr Izhar Ahmed Chaudhry, Joint Secretary Dr Shahid Malik, Vice Presiden Dr Ehsan ur Rehman, Lady Vice President Dr Yasmin Ehsan, Lady Joint Secretary Dr Sabahat Habib Khan and Joint Secretary Dr Salman Kazmi.
