With the increasing economical pressure and lack of resources, healthcare system in Pakistan is deteriorating day be day. Although during the last decades many improvements are made, there is tremendous fatality rate in Pakistan among infants and women. To know the major challenges faced by health sector in Pakistan, let discus some points.
According to Transparency International surveys, health care in Pakistan is one of the country’s most corrupt sectors; general polls show that the majority of Pakistanis are dissatisfied with the health services they receive.
There are various flaws, including as poor governance, a lack of access and unequal distribution of resources, a poor-quality Health Information Management System, corruption in the health system, a lack of monitoring in health policy and health planning, and a shortage of educated professionals.
What are the Major Challenges faced by Health Sector in Pakistan?
Since Pakistan’s independence, the advancement of the health sector has been impossible to overlook. There are many weaknesses and challenges which are currently faced by the Pakistani health care system. Here are some of the major challenges faced by health sector in Pakistan;
Lack of Resources:
Because of the weak infrastructure of the Basic Health Units (BHUs) and Rural Health Centers (RHCs), the majority of people are unwilling to use the public health system’s healthcare services, and as a result, rural people are diverted to tertiary care facilities. The distance to health facilities, as well as a lack of transportation options with inadequate roads, limit their access to these services. Furthermore, it has been discovered that the public sector in Pakistan is underutilized due to a lack of human resources, a lack of health education, a lack of openness, and impediments due to linguistic and cultural differences. For many people, attending BHUs is a nightmare because of the aforementioned concerns.
Poor healthcare infrastructure is one of the reasons of downfall of healthcare system in Pakistan. There is no proper policy making and planning in this department. This leads to inadequate healthcare facilities available to the citizens. A typical government hospital lacks sufficient doctors, nurses, and personnel. Because they serve a big population in the surrounding area, such hospitals are frequently overcrowded. They don’t have enough beds (due to an overabundance of patients).
Hospitals are filthy and unhygienic, they lack security, patient care is unheard of, medicines and consumables are frequently in low supply, employees may be unscrupulous and demand bribes from patients, and they may even lack essential utilities such as a continuous supply of water, power, and fuel. Because of breakdowns or corruption, their ambulances may be unavailable, leaving patients to fend for themselves.
Political and higher authority corruption is one of the reasons of poor health sector in Pakistan. The resources are unavailable in the hospitals and other healthcare centers due to corruption.
Lack of Educated Health Specialists:
In Health sector of Pakistan, there is still a lack of educated and professional individuals although number of students are graduating each year. The main reason is less availability of seats in public sector that hinders the educated people to come and serve the nation.
Another reason for lack of educated health specialists in Pakistan is, many health specialists go abroad for higher education and work there. This is the major loss of the health sector of Pakistan.
Lack of Public Health Insurance:
When public health systems fail, people are forced to seek treatment from private health care providers. Profit is the goal of private health care facilities. There is an obvious demand-supply imbalance, and they take advantage of the low supply to boost their own pricing. As a result, medical treatment in a private hospital may be significantly more expensive than in a government hospital. However, because major part of our population lacks health insurance, they are obliged to pay for their own treatment. As a result, many people are unable to afford healthcare.
High Prices of Imported Products:
Although Pakistan has largest pharmaceutical industries, but many medicines are need to be import from foreign countries. Similarly, many surgical and other health related machinery is imported from other countries. In this way, more budget is needed to fulfil the need of these imported products. But unfortunately, due to the lack of resources and increasing economical pressure, Health sector in Pakistan is unable to meet the need of these products that are necessary for the basic needs of citizens.
Same is the case with medicines that are imported from foreign countries.
Lack of Awareness:
People living in urban areas are more privileged and have access to basic health facilities. Similarly they are well aware about the health issues. But the situation in rural areas in different. People in rural areas are not well aware about the vaccines, treatment, precautions, preventions, etc. of many health issues. This increase the pressure on health sector of Pakistan. So it is need of the hour to start educating people of rural areas and help them to get the basic health facilities.
How can Health Sector in Pakistan be Improved?
The main purpose of improving the health care sector in Pakistan is to improve the life quality and to decrease the mortality rate in public. Pakistani government and private sectors should focus on these points to build a better health sector in Pakistan;
- Encouraging innovation and manufacturing (of medical devices) in Pakistan.
- Increased investment in medical research.
- Improving medical, nursing, and technical education, as well as upskilling current workers
- Public health insurance
- Awareness programs
- Check and balance of hospitals and other health departments to control the corruption.
- International Collaborations can also be done
Pakistan is facing a lot of economical and political challenges. And after 74 years of independence, Pakistan still have poor health sector that has many challenges to face. From corruption to lack of well educated manpower, Pakistan has to fight with a lot of challenges. It is the high time to implement better health policy and start manufacturing medical devices within the country.
If you live in Pakistan and require medical assistance, you can visit the Marham website or download the app to gain simple access to online doctors, medicine delivery, online appointment booking, and much more.
What is lacking in Pakistan health system?
Numerous flaws exist in Pakistan’s health system, such as poor governance, restricted access to resources, unequal distribution of those resources, a poor health information management system, corruption in the healthcare industry, a dearth of skilled workers, and poor governance.
Is healthcare affordable in Pakistan?
In Pakistan, the health sector continues to get a smaller amount of government financing than is acceptable. In addition, there is no national health insurance system. As a result, the right to ‘affordable healthcare’ will be pushed further into the future.