KARACHI      -    Dua Foundation General Secretary Dr Faiyaz Alam said, “National health’s promotion and preservation is the core responsibility of any government, which is unfortunately ignored as 46 out of 1000 children die within 29 days after birth, this rate is higher than Afghanistan. 75 percent births take place in homes through unqualified midwives.
Moreover there is no system of specialized training for midwives.”He was speaking in a Shura Hamdard meeting, presided over by Dr Abubakr Sheikh, titled “Public health, alarming situation and national efforts”
at Hamdard Corporate Office, Karachi.He further said, “In order to resolve health issues, there should be appointments on merit instead of political basis in health department and in hospitals. Incompetent appointments have created a menace as they are playing with the lives of masses. Government has established many hospitals all over the country but there are no facilities in them.”He advised governments to hand over management of those hospitals, which government could not run successfully, to reputable, credible
NGOs as there have been several successful examples in this regard. Therefore government should bring all NGOs on board and start collective efforts to fight this menace. The private nursing homes have been popped up like mushroom on as small covered area as 80 yards, he added.He said government has given no priority to nursing, that’s why 78 women out of 1000 die during child birth. He emphasized on the importance
of awareness and collectiveefforts of government and private sectors. Dr Abubakr Sheikh emphasised
on political will to overcome
this challenge and said that government should patronise
general health. “The widespread
dengue virus is an eye-opener for us. With complete fumigation, good governance and effective management, we can overcome this obstacle and we must do that as health is such of such importance that nations’ rise and fall depend
on it”.The President of Hamdard Foundation Pakistan, Mrs Sadia
Rashid said that national health was pivotal for nations’ development and progress; therefore it was imperative to create awareness among children
and youths by inducting chapters on “health science” in curricula of primary and secondary
schools.Dr Rizwana Ansari said: “Infant
mortality is alarmingly high. As many as 62 children out of 1000 die after birth. 45 percent children are born with weak body and mind.”We have not been able to defeat polio and dengue too, which was spreading and as many as 34,000 people have been affected so far, many hospitals lacked of dog bite medicines. Mostly village
women faced anemia, caused by malnutrition and lack of family planning, she said, adding that such issues were posing serious challenges
to our society and