Pakistan

Citation

(2006), "Pakistan", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 19 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2006.06219dab.007

Pakistan

Pakistan

Shaukat says government to improve health facilities

Keywords: Partnership, Preventative healthcare, Quality improvement

Islamabad – Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Monday reiterated the commitment of the government to provide quality healthcare to people at every level with improving the public-private partnership in the field of healthcare.

Addressing the launching ceremony of “The Gateway Paper, Health Systems in Pakistan – a Way Forward” complied by Sania Nishtar here at local hotel, the Prime Minister said the government would increase funding for the health sector and Rs 31 billion are being spent on this sector by the federal and provincial governments during the current fiscal year.

The prime minister said the government would achieve the target of spending 4 per cent of the GDP on the health sector with a view to provide best possible health facilities to every one. He said besides preventive healthcare, the government has been giving due importance to improve the quality healthcare through betterment of overall health system.

The prime minister said health and other sectors are being re-engineered to improve its efficiency. Referring to improvement in the health sector, the prime minister said, “We have good collection of people of various disciplines who are working effectively to improve the healthcare system of the country.” Shaukat Aziz said preventive side was being given special attention by the government so that diseases could be controlled at initial level. Referring to the various programmes of the government in the preventive healthcare, the prime minister said government has also started the provision of clean drinking water to save the people from water-born diseases. He said that the government had also started a special programme to control hepatitis which has been increasing at alarming ratio in the country.

The prime minister also mentioned the contribution of lady health workers and said they were playing effective role in the promotion of healthcare and educating the public about preventive healthcare.

He said besides improvement in the district headquarters hospitals, basic health units, specialised hospitals, the government was also concentrating to acquire most modern technology to the hospitals as it was an important factor to improve healthcare.

The prime minister said private sector was being involved in the supervision of government hospitals to improve their efficiency. He said private sector has to play major and important role to help the government in the improvement of health facilities.

Shaukat Aziz said all the ministries have been given goals which are reviewed every three months.

Referring to the health facilities in the earthquake-hit areas, the prime minister said, Ministry of Health with the cooperation of international community provided best possible facilities. He said during his over 64 visits to the quake-hit areas, he was impressed by these medical facilities. He said Pakistani and foreign doctors played very important role in providing healthcare to the injured after October 8 earthquake.

The prime minister said the government has also adopted “transparency” in its policies so that every one could be aware of these policies and they could be made result-oriented. He said openness in the policies and transparency always lead to good governance and reduce corruption.

Federal Minister for Health Muhammad Nasir Khan speaking on the occasion said public-private partnership was working very successfully in the health sector and it had improved the healthcare delivery system.

He said government had been implementing very “effective and efficient” health policy for the benefit of every one. The minister said due to effective public-private sector partnership in health sector, the Ministry of Health was able to motivate a large number of Pakistani and foreign doctors to help in the quake-hit areas.

For more information: www.pakobserver.net