Yet another action plan on NCDs?

Islamabad: The Ministry of Health has initiated work on the development of a National Action Plan on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), Secretary Health Zahid Saeed told participants of a two-day national consultative workshop on NCDs here Friday. The need to embark on such an exercise appeared so redundant, given that a comprehensive National Action Plan for Prevention and Control of NCDs, had long been developed back in 2004 as a public-private partnership initiative involving the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and NGO think tank Heartfile.

Terming the workshop as the start of the process leading to the development of the Action Plan on NCDs, Zahid added that the workshop has been organized to start formal deliberations on the NCD challenges in Pakistan. Such deliberations have been held many a times in the past, with no major breakthrough being achieved due to inattention towards implementation of existing plans and policies. Resultantly, the total burden of NCDs including injuries now stands at around 56% of the total disease burden in Pakistan.

While the burden of communicable diseases is gradually declining, the situation of NCDs is worrisome as NCDs are contributing to 60.3% of total deaths in Pakistan with the largest share of cardiovascular diseases, cancers and diabetes. There is a challenge of around 51 million hypertension and 29 million diabetic cases in the country—which is not acceptable and emergency measures need to be taken to control the rising numbers. There are 2.3 million ischemic heart disease cases, 1.3 million stroke cases, 840,000 cases of cancers, 33 million cases of cirrhosis and chronic liver diseases and 23 million cases of mental disorders.

Zahid also stated that a National Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) is being developed, and that the said package will adopt the global and national best practices including those for NCDs. It would auger well for the Ministry to refer back to the action plan developed in 2004, rather than reinventing the wheel, and to focus on implementation of key action agendas that had been outlined therein.

The workshop was attended by Dr. Slim Slama, WHO regional advisor on NCDs, representatives of Provincial Departments of Health, academicians, clinicians, researchers and other stakeholders. Addressing the participants, Parliamentary Secretary Dr. Nausheen Hamid expressed how supportive Prime Minister Imran Khan is of efforts to tackle the NCD burden in a comprehensive way, particularly in a bid to alleviate the sufferings of the most underserved segments

Dr. Slim Slama emphasised that there is a need not only to develop a comprehensive EPHS to be implemented at all levels of healthcare delivery system but also to develop and implement inter-sectoral policies. He appreciated the efforts of the Ministry to introduce the ‘Health Tax’ on cigarettes and fizzy drinks.

Discussions were held on different NCD interventions being tested in Pakistan and expert opinion from specialist clinicians and academicians working in the area of NCDs was sought. To tackle the challenges, there was a consensus to adopt an integrated approach for NCDs and prioritizing primary and preventive health care services.