President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday called for a greater focus on promoting preventive healthcare in the country which is not only cost-effective but would help reduce the disease burden. He said Pakistan, being a developing country, could hardly afford to fully meet the healthcare needs of its over 220 million population through curative treatments due to limited resources. The president gave these remarks while chairing the fourth meeting of the Senate of the Health Services Academy (HSA), at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
President Alvi said that Pakistan needed to make goal-oriented and time-bound plans to improve its public health sector, adding that preventive healthcare should be the priority of the country’s health policy. He highlighted that some countries had tremendously improved their health sectors by focusing on preventive health and investing in the intellectual development of their human resources.
The meeting was also briefed about the impacts of global warming and climate change which would likely increase the burden of diseases due to rising temperatures. The meeting stressed the need for exploring funding options from international donors for research and development in the public health sector.
It was also emphasized to develop a resource mobilization strategy to meet the future financial needs of HSA as well as the healthcare programmes in the country. The meeting also underscored the importance of devising a National Plan for Public Health to effectively address the challenges being faced by the country’s health sector.
The meeting also endorsed the minutes of the third Senate meeting of the Health Services Academy. Senate passes resolution acknowledging significance of ‘World Health Day’: The Senate on Friday passed a unanimous resolution acknowledging the significance of ‘World Health Day’ in promoting the global health awareness. Presented by Dr. Sania Nishtar, the resolution recognized WHO’s critical role in advancing health globally by improving disease prevention and care, addressing health disparities and advocating for investments in strong and sustainable health systems to achieve better health outcomes for all. It recognized that healthcare remained the topmost priority agenda in the social sector including environmental protection and economic development.
It also emphasized that the goals of development in the country could not be realized without taking steps towards building a healthy nation. The resolution expressed concerns that a significant size of the country’s population that could be contributing to the development and progress had limited access to better healthcare facilities.
It called upon all the stakeholders including Senate to work tirelessly to augment the country’s health infrastructure with the focus on quality and affordable healthcare to the citizens. It also demanded that the government leveraged technical expertise from the WHO and other international health institutions to enhance the country’s readiness for outbreaks and emergencies; to bolster the country’s capacity to deliver on Sustainable Development Goal 3, including Universal Health Coverage target to deal with climate change related health risks in better ways and improve Pakistan’s prospects of realizing the right to health across all segments of society.
