Pakistan vying for providing quality healthcare to poor: WHA told

Islamabad: Pakistan recognizes the right of every individual to quality health care, for which concerted efforts are being made to attain Universal Health Coverage, Minister of State for Health Saira Afzal stated at the Commonwealth Health Minister’s meeting at the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

Leveraging the nationally representative database of poor families in the country, Pakistan has launched the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme, with an aim to prevent 100 million people from catastrophic health expenditures across the country in a phased manner, Saira shared with participants of the meeting.

Saira added that thousands of patients across the country have benefitted from free quality treatment provided under this programme from both public and private sector health facilities for a range of ailments that require hospitalization.

“We are striving to ensure effective health financing for our people in a reformed health sector, which can play a crucial role in strengthening global security including preparedness and response to public health threats and disasters,” she said.

The meeting was informed that all political parties in Pakistan have recently ratified the Sustainable Development Goals as the National Development Agenda and have endorsed the target for Universal Health Coverage. “The federal and provincial governments have lately committed to enhancing public health spending by endorsing the National Vision 2025 and the National Health Vision 2016-25,” Saira concluded.