In the light of the poor state of the health sector in Pakistan, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) will organise a seminar “National Health Care System for Pakistan” on Monday to explore the vision of a new National Health Care System for Pakistan (NHSP).
The new NHSP is envisioned to be completely autonomous with a plan for stewardship, provision of healthcare services and resource generation. The governance structure of this new NHSP will help empower health professionals in decision making, according to a press statement issued on Friday. The most important feature of this system would be the groundbreaking resource generation plan.
This plan would involve each citizen of Pakistan and be able accumulate Rs 324 billion annually. This new reservoir of resources along with the existing resource heads would help in reducing the financial barrier to universal health care delivery and could possibly provide financial risk protection. Under the new NHSP plan, population based distribution of the health care facilities would be the proposed strategy to attain the “health for all” goal and to address the rural urban disparities, inadequacy and other barriers to health care delivery. A comprehensive health unit would be established for each subset of the population.
The new NHSP plan would have other important components such as a health management information system, medical courts and a health accountability bureau. The proposed NHSP is a solution for all stakeholders, including the general public, healthcare providers and the government. It is envisioned to provide free medical care to all of its premium holders across the county at the place and time of use. The health sector has largely been ignored and therefore has failed to deliver to the needs of the country’s citizens. Since Pakistan’s creation, investment on health has never been above one percent of the GDP. Not much progress seems to have been made since independence as it can be seen by the expenditure on health of just Rs 0.35 per person per day.
