Insufficient health cover

The statistics released by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and World Health Organisation (WHO) reveal that for a population of 10000 seven Physicians and 13 surgeons are available whereas as per the required standard 11 Physicians and 26 Surgeons should be available to cater to the health needs of this population. The number of Psychiatrists’ is only three to cater for the metal diseases in a population of 1 million.

Over the past 30 years health sector has received the worst deal in terms of budgetary allocations to meet the recurring expenditure and development expenditure for setting up new hospitals has been completely stopped. Some of the existing district headquarter hospitals have upgraded to teaching level but the health infrastructure has not been expanded in the upgraded hospitals. Neglecting the construction of new hospitals and ignoring the expansion of existing infrastructure have resulted in the decline of fresh recruitment of Physicians, Surgeons and Psychiatrists. The then Secretary Health Abid Majeed once told that for the Metropolitan city of Peshawar four MTI level hospitals has to be set up. There is dire need for budgetary allocations for establishing new hospitals to provide optimal health cover to the people.