‘Public–private partnerships key to health sector uplift’

Karachi

In a meeting with a delegation of the Childlife Foundation, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said that public-private partnerships remain a need of the hour for providing adequate health facilities to every citizen, particularly those living in far-flung areas.

In a press statement issued on Wednesday, the PPP chief said that his party had asked the provincial government to expand health facilities across the province. For the purpose, he said, public-private partnerships could prove invaluable.

The visiting delegation, which included Dr Naseeruddin Mehmood, Dr Ahsan Rabbani, Naeem Arain, Syed Riaz Hussain and Muhammad Haroon, informed the PPP chairman that they need additional space at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) to treat non-urgent cases and about a similar public-private partnership agreement for establishment of a paediatric emergency room at Sindh Government Hospital, Korangi.

Bilawal assured the visitors of the government’s cooperation in this regard and directed Sindh Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar to oversee the matter.

Childlife Foundation, a local NGO, is managing the Paediatric Emergency Rooms at Civil Hospital, Karachi since 2011 and National Institute of Child Health (NICH) since 2013 under public-private partnership agreements with the Sindh Health Department.  According to the  NGO, free treatment has been provided to 900,000 under its operations till now.