Karachi
The provincial health minister said on Saturday that he hoped the private sector’s assistance would help government-run medical facilities in improving their management of non-communicable diseases.
Jam Mehtab Dahar was speaking as the chief guest on the occasion of the 7th two-day symposium of the National Institute of Child Health organised at a hotel.
Many health experts and pediatricians from across Pakistan as well as abroad attended the event.
“Unfortunately, children in Pakistan are suffering from both infectious and non-communicable diseases,” he said.
“Key risk factors and the onset of many non-communicable diseases start during childhood, but with the support of the private health sector, the health authorities will be able to manage this problem more effectively,” he added.
Dahar described the NICH symposium as a great achievement in dealing with the issue of infectious and non-communicable diseases among children and hoped that experts would come with effective recommendations.
Briefing about the steps taken by the provincial government for the promotion of health facilities in the province, the minister said work on the expansion of the NICH in other parts of the province was in progress, the SIUT Sukkur would have its own building in the next fiscal year and liver transplant would be started at the SIUT Karachi in the second week of January.
“Our greatest hope for preventing non-communicable diseases and addressing the epidemics of infectious ailments lies in better living conditions, healthy life-style and provision of health facilities at the grassroots level,” he said.
“The focus of this scientific forum is the care of children who are living with non-communicable diseases and exploring ways that specialist pediatricians and government representatives can work together in a joint effort to address the inequities associated with non-communicable diseases that are experienced by children and youngsters.”
The health minister said the provincial government was fully committed to an improved health status for children as non-communicable diseases and the sustainable development goals were the new challenges and deadlines that we have committed to meet in improving the health status in Pakistan.
Dahar said unfortunately, we were simultaneously fighting the battle of poliomyelitis while the rest of the world has moved forward.
“We are faced with a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Nevertheless, we have to tackle all the challenges at the same time and I am positive that we will be able to do NICH is our leading children’s hospital and has been providing great services to the children of Karachi and the province of Sindh and Balochistan,” he said.
“There are some issues since the devolution, which has slowed the progress of these institutes and we acknowledge the many brilliant doctors who have suffered individually”, he added.
He maintained that the government wanted the NICH to be the premier institute and perform as optimally as possible. “We would like to promote the culture of research so that more research is conducted locally to find solutions for issues facing the community.”
He said another issue that had been brought to his notice was the screening of children with neonatal hypothyroidism.
“Pakistan is a country where quite a few children are born with hypothyroidism, most of whom are picked up late because of lack of screening,” he added.
“I understand the need for the screening program to be set up so that these children are diagnosed early to prevent mental retardation”, he said adding that he will try to address the issue and give his full support for setting up such a screening programme.”
Speaking on the occasion, IBA director and former State Bank of Pakistan governor Dr Ishrat Hussain stressed the need for making health management the top priority of the government.
He said in order to understand health economics in Pakistan one must concentrate on the importance of a clean environment, female education and poverty alleviation.