ANALYSIS OF THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM OF PAKISTAN: LESSONS LEARNT AND WAY FORWARD

Authors

  • Zohra Kurji Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery
  • Zahra Shaheen Premani Catco Kids, Karachi
  • Yasmin Mithani Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery

Abstract

Background: Pakistani health care system is in progress and since last year, Pakistan has tried to make much improvement in its health care delivery system and has brought out many reforms. Methods: A systematic search of national and international literature was looked from peer-reviewed databases form MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PubMed. Results: There are few strengths in health care delivery system in Pakistan like making health policies, participating in Millennium Development Goals program, initiating vertical programs and introducing Public Private Partnership, improving human resource development and infrastructure by making Basic Health Unit and Rural Health Centres. However, these all programs are very limited in its scope and that is the reason that Pakistan’s healthcare system is still not very efficient. There are numerous weaknesses like poor governance, lack of access and unequal resources, poor quality of Health Information Management System, corruption in health system, lack of monitoring in health policy and health planning and lack of trained staff. Conclusion: Pakistan is improving very slowly in the health sector for the last five decades as is evident by its health indicators and above mentioned strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the Government needs to take strong initiatives to change the current health care system.Keywords: health care delivery system, Millennium Development Goal, Public Private Partnership, Basic Health Unit (BHU) and Rural Health Centres (RHC)

References

Ghaffar A, Kazi BM, Salman M. Health Care system in transition 111. Pakistan, Part 1. An overview of the Health Care system in Pakistan. J Public Health Med 2000;22(1):38–42.

Ali SZ. Health for all in Pakistan: achievements, strategies and challenges. East Mediterr Health J 2000:6(4):832–7.

Manzoor I, Hashmi NR, Mukhtar F. Determinants and Pattern of Health Care Services Utilization in post graduate students. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 2009;21(3):100–5.

Shaikh BT, Hatcher J. Health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan: challenging the policy makers. J Public Health (Oxf) 2005;27(1):49–54.

National Programme for family planning and primary Health Care “The lady Health workers programme” Jan 2010-June 2015. Government of Pakistan. [Internet]. [cited 2016 Jun 2]. Available from: http://www.pc.gov.pk/downloads/pc1-forms_verticalhealth/program/National%20Program%20for%20Family%20Planning.pdf

National Health Accounts Pakistan 2005-06. Government of Pakistan Statistics Division: Federal Bureau of Statistics. May 2009. [Internet]. [cited 2010 Oct 20]. Available from: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/national_accounts/national%20health%20accounts/National_Health_Account_2007-08.pdf

Planning Commission Centre for Research on Poverty Reduction and Income Distribution Islamabad. Pakistan Millennium Development Goals Report 2005. [Internet]. [cited 2010 Oct 27]. Available from: file:///C:/Users/Wali%20Muhammad/Downloads/UNDP-PK-MDG-Pak-2005.pdf

Shaikh BT, Rabbani F, Safi N, Dawar Z. Contracting of primary healthcare services in Pakistan: Is up-scaling a pragmatic thinking? J Pak Med Assoc 2010;60(5):387–9.

Ali S M. Innovative Health Management Rahimyar Khan District. [Internet]. [cited 2010 Nov 4]. Available from: http://www.policy.hu/ali/Rahimyar%20Khan%20case%20study.pdf

Expanded Programme on Immunization Financial Sustainability Plan 2003-2012 Islamabad 2003. [Internet]. [cited 2010 Oct 23]. Available from: file:///C:/Users/Wali%20Muhammad/Downloads/fsp_jan04_pakistan.pdf

Khan MM, Van den Heuver W. The impact of political context upon health policy process in Pakistan. Public Health 2007:121(4):278–86.

Gohar Wajid DA, Al Massoud HA. Prospects, Prerequisites and Challenges for Developing a Healthcare Quality Improvement Strategy for Pakistani Healthcare System. Pak Seventh Int Conv Qual Improv. 2002;1–7.

Nishtar S, Bhutta ZA, Jafar TH, Ghaffar A, Akhtar T, Bengali K, et al. Health reform in Pakistan: a call to action. Lancet 2013;381(9885):2291–9.

Ali M, Horikoshi Y. Situation analysis of health management information system in Pakistan. Pak J Med Res 2002;41:64–9.

Khan A. Failure analysis of primary healthcare in Pakistan and recommendations for health. [Internet]. [cited 2010 Oct 30]. Available from: http://pti-tehreek-e-insaf.blogspot.com/2011/11/failure-analysis-of-primary-health-care.html

Published

2016-08-28