Incapacity of Health sector

 

 There is progress in the health sector accompanied by other sectors worldwide but in Paki­stan every sector like health is facing difficulties. There is a severe lack of economic and human resources in the health sec­tor of Pakistan. According to a report, only one-tenth of the current resource re­quirement is being met with great difficulty, there is an ur­gent need to escalate economic and human resources in the country as well as to produce quality doctors and nurses for quality healthcare. But in Pakistan, from the elected govern­ment to the interim government, im­portant sectors like health and edu­cation are nowhere to be seen. 

Pakistan has been suffering from an economic crisis for a long time due to which the availability of quality eco­nomic and human resources alike other countries is becoming cum­bersome while natural calamities or pandemics including COVID and den­gue have also increased the difficul­ties. During this time, many welfare organisations have been setting up medical camps in collaboration with the government, which have partial­ly proved to be temporary and in­sufficient. We as a society should start working immediately to attract the government and public support with various organisations to put the health sector of the world at the fore­front and play our full role to improve our future but instead of improving in various sectors with the govern­ment, we keep pointing out each oth­er’s shortcomings. 

According to a Lancet study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Eval­uation (IHME), Pakistan’s top prior­ity is universal health coverage, its Healthcare Access and Quality In­dex score was ranked 154th out of 195 countries and still maintain to achieve the targeted 2030 UN Sus­tainable Development Goals by prio­ry adopted health insurance coverage programs- Sehat Sahulat and Bena­zir Income Support Program that are now limited to cover the whole pop­ulation. An estimated about 33 mil­lion people have been affected by in­fectious diseases and child mortality since June 2022 flooding devastation that ensued in flood- ravaged areas, the impact could last for years due to malnutrition, unhygienic and un­safe drinking availability. However, despite the allocation of 24 billion rupees in the National Health Bud­get 2023-2024 and the workforce of 175,000 doctors, it is still insufficient for 216 million people. 

There is no doubt that providing healthcare facilities to the public in any state is the primary responsibil­ity of the government, although Pak­istan does not have such econom­ic conditions nor does it appear to be the priority of any government. Every government holding a posi­tion in this country has been prac­ticing a transitory inactive program, even in the year 2023 no substantial improvement has been made in the health sector, long queues of patients in all major government hospitals and the chaos of the patients confirm that non-merit recruitment staff is letting their subordinates laxation and sit­ting in air-conditioned rooms on huge salaries and no one is doing the possi­ble work. If everyone from doctors to paramedical staff in the hospitals will be brought only by recommendation instead of merit, then how can the health sector be improved and how can the people be given any relief. 

It is not the case that there are un­skilled people in Pakistan or good doctors and well trained paramedical staff are insubstantial instead there are very talented people in this coun­try, talented doctors are becoming and paramedical staff are also being trained well. But everywhere there is a lack of merit, everywhere the in­competent is given priority over the qualified and as a result, a large num­ber of talented people have gone abroad and those who are left behind are also struggling to leave the coun­try. In order to bring improvement in this country from the economy to the society, merit must be brought in and people with merit must be utilised. Until, talented people come on mer­it in every field in this country, the economy of the country will not im­prove, nor can any improvement be feasibly made with the available re­sources. We have certainly less eco­nomic resources but there is no lack of human resources yet we are also wasting our large number of human resources with the indiscriminate use of limited economic resources, unless it is properly utilised, the health sys­tem will not improve. 

It is a strange scenario that from the government ministers to the top offi­cials of every sector, all are neglecting their responsibilities and there is no one to scrutinise or inquire them in the illegal venture of this corrupt sys­tem and the common people are suf­fering the punishment alone. In fact, now the tolerance of the people is be­ginning to respond with exhaustion and if the government does not estab­lish a strict system of accountability with its ministers to improve the per­formance of the top officials of every sector and does not fulfill the slogans and promises with which they come to power then this time general pub­lic is not going to remain silent nor will they bear everything silently, the rulers will be in the courts of the peo­ple and even those who position such leaders will not be able to save them.