Health top priority area for government, says president

Islamabad : President Dr. Arif Alvi on Wednesday underscored the need for research saying it is essential for improvement in health systems.

"Investment in health research is critical to meet key challenges in the health sector such as prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, maternal and prenatal conditions, childhood diseases, and nutritional deficiencies," he said during a visit to the National Institute of Health here.

The president was briefed in detail regarding the endeavours of the NIH.

Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Aamer Mehmood Kiani was also present on the occasion.

The president said healthcare was the top most priority area of the present government, which was committed to undertaking reforms in the sector in order to provide efficient, equitable, accessible and affordable services to the people of Pakistan. He said provision of good quality healthcare to all in Pakistan should be a joint vision of all and we should work towards removing every obstacle in the way of this noble cause.

The president said the NIH was a national institution mandated to advise the Federal Government on the control of diseases by suitable methods and investigate epidemics and other communicable diseases, conduct research on these problems using modern techniques and achieve excellence in this regard.

He said the NIH was a WHO collaborating centre for viral diagnostics, regional reference laboratory for polio, a national reference centre for diagnosis of Influenza, National Appellate Laboratory for quality control of drugs and public analyst laboratory for quality control of food for federal territory, Islamabad.

"The NIH should improve its facilities to match with international standards and strive to enhance the quality of health services for the benefit of the people," he said.

The president appreciated the team of NIH for their efforts for provision of best health services to the people of the country and wish them success in their future efforts.