There is no mechanism for monitoring and evaluating the functioning of health services in Sindh to ensure affordable, quality care to those in need, said speakers on Sunday during a forum titled ‘The Political Parties, The Health of People of Sindh and Election 2013’.
The participants of the forum, organised by different non-governmental organisations, demanded the government to allocate appropriate budget for the treatment and rehabilitation of the disabled, increase budget of primary healthcare by 50 percent, allocate resources for the development of a regularity mechanism, advocate decrease in violence in the public sphere, and support lady health workers (LHWs) and community midwives by integrating them into the health system.
The aim of the forum was to bring stakeholders of all political parties and discuss health issues, including malnutrition, early child development, women, adolescent and child health, allocation of health budget, quality of healthcare service, violence, gender, and role of LHWs and midwives, and to share their party manifestos on health in their future governance. The main focus of the forum was on the role of political parties in the health sector of Pakistan.
Speakers said that there is a dire need to ensure food availability to reduce malnutrition, and that in Sindh, the situation of women dying due to pregnancy could be alleviated by ensuring free emergency obstetric care and effective, affordable transport for accessing health facilities.
Dr Hasina Chagani of the Pakistan Paediatric Association said that in Pakistan, the health of people is not that good.
She said that the mortality rate is very high here and the rate of malnutrition in children under the age of five has not declined in the last three decades.
“The infant mortality rate and the under-five mortality rate can be reduced only if we follow our Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDGs address alleviation of poverty, provision of clean water, improving coverage of Expanded Programme on Immunisation, addressing maternal and neonatal care, and treatment of common paediatric problems,” she added.
Chagani said that the recent inflation in all food commodities has worsened the situation. She said, “Malnutrition also prevails and 70 percent of our children fall below the average weight for their age.” She believes we could prevent all the vaccine-preventable diseases.
She said that provision of clean drinking water is the most cost-effective intervention to decrease morbidity and mortality due to waterborne diseases.
The things that need to be done to reduce child mortality include improving our vaccination coverage, decreasing malnutrition, and spreading education and awareness, she added.
Hilda Saeed of the Women’s Action Forum said that women’s health is very important. She said, “The status of maternal health is poor in Pakistan. An estimated 30,000 women die each year due to pregnancy-related causes. It is estimated that about 500 maternal deaths occur per 100,000 live births each year in the country.”
She also said that all pregnant women are at risk of obstetrical complications and most of these occur during labour and delivery that lead to maternal death.
“The provision of skilled care and timely management of complications could lower maternal mortality in our setup. Government budget allocation for health is 0.7 percent, which is very low and it needs to be increased,” she added.
Hadi Bux Jatoi of the Pakistan Medical Association said that in Pakistan, people’s lives are the cheapest of all things.
He said, “We are not doing any work on health in our country. Receiving treatment for a disease here is very costly and out of reach of the common man. To reduce the rate of mortality, we need to focus on our health issues. In Pakistan, 25 percent of the people are suffering from hepatitis. Compared to other countries, the health budget of Pakistan is very low.”
Dr Zahid Ahmed from the public health sector said, “The government is spending 0.7 percent of its gross domestic product on health, of which the government is providing 25 percent and 75 percent is being taken from the people.”
He said that we need to focus on primary healthcare issues, and that political interfere is a very serious problem in the health sector, so to protect our health system, we need to make it stronger.
Khwaja Tariq Nazir of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said that the health system of Pakistan is appalling, and that the government is not providing primary healthcare service to the people.
“Our party manifesto is to give importance to primary healthcare schemes for the people. There is a dire need to provide a proper healthcare service in the rural areas of our country. We shall launch mobile health units to provide health service at their doorsteps,” he added.
Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi President Muhammad Hussain Mehanti said that the current situation of the country has turned the people into mental patients.
“The current health budget is very low and it needs to be increased to take care of all the health needs of the people. If we want to bring a change in our country, we need to change our healthcare structure. In government and private schools, the absence of doctors is quite common, which is a serious cause of concern for all of us,” he added.
Awami National Party’s Sindh Labour Minister Amir Nawab Khan said that if we were to compare the health budget of Pakistan with other countries’, we shall find it to be very low. “There should be a healthcare centre in rural areas with all the basic medical facilities,” he added.
Taj Haider of the Pakistan People’s Party said that health has become an important issue after the 18th amendment, and that the government is focusing more on prevention.
He said, “We are providing 100 percent coverage to the health sector. The healthcare service in Pakistan is very good. The price of lifesaving drugs should be decreased. A national health insurance scheme should be initiated for the people.”
We need to focus on family planning, and provision of clean drinking water is a serious matter that needs to be addressed, he added.
Dr Arif Alvi of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said that the health of the people of the country is dreadful, and that the medical system in Pakistan should be transparent.
