The data showing continuous spread of diseases in Pakistan points to poor health care governance. Pakistan, population-wise the fifth largest country of the world, still needs to recognise health as a basic right. Its media needs to set up a serious direction to take up the health issues for which it needs accurate information and a firm focus. The Constitution of 1973 recognises the need for medical aid for its people but does not recognise health as a separate basic right of its citizens, a matter that needs the attention of the government.

The startling figures presented by medical experts of the country, in a first of its kind comprehensive workshop for journalists from various regions covering health, highlighted various aspects of poor health governance and the limited media role.

Dr Zafar Mirza, the former minister of state for health, conducted this extensive workshop with the help of Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA) while highlighting a variety of health issues. TDEA, primarily working on data collection and analyses, aims to promote health governance and reform. It works on strengthening the civil society and media as a part of these reforms with a holistic approach.

The workshop titled, Covering Covid-19 & Health Governance in Pakistan, gave an opportunity to journalists to talk about different issues of health governance and healthcare in the wake of Covid-19. It led to a realisation that Covid-19 pandemic has given an opportunity to Pakistan to review its health governance model and extensively engage with the media to deal with the growing challenges in this sector.

Indicators show that if Pakistan, with a population of 222 million by 2019, continued to grow at this pace, it will become a population of 281 million by 2030 and a population of 350 million by 2050. The population situation is causing serious risks to mother and child healthcare and deaths because of pregnancy complications.

Pakistan’s neonatal mortality rate of 42 per thousand live births compares poorly with a South Asian average of 28 per 1,000. Pakistan is among the countries with the lowest Universal Health Care in global index. It shows Pakistan has less than 40 percent overall health coverage. Malnutrition and stunting are other serious challenges. 40 percent of its children are stunted (have low height for age), and 52 percent are Vitamin A deficient.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world that are still struggling to eliminate polio virus. Pakistan has more than 190,000 people living with HIV (PLHIV). After China, Pakistan has the largest burden of people carrying Hepatitis C infection. It also has more than 2 million HBV infected people. It needs to test at least 170 million people to eliminate this virus.

Pakistan has a huge burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health cases. Experts estimates that 55.3 percent of all deaths occurring in Pakistan are due to NCDs and mental health problems. Pakistan is a country with a flawed medicine price policy that needs a serious review. It has no official medicine quality control mechanisms. We also lack a proper health insurance mechanism for all. Pakistan has a poor patient safety system. Its private health sector is growing without regulation and its public healthcare system is functioning poorly. We lack a public-private partnership in healthcare.

The number of quacks is rising without serious legal and administrative interventions. Focus on preventive healthcare is in neglect.

The workshop was an attempt to give an understanding of the health sector by looking at its various aspects.

It showed that health care is a much larger phenomenon linked with human development which is the foundation for economic development. It highlighted the need for a health policy and service reform for advancing primary healthcare-based universal health coverage, i.e, a safety net of health for those who cannot pay. The workshop was aimed at looking for reliable health information, knowing credible sources of health information and issues and preparing the media to play a pivotal role in helping improve health governance.

Experts believe a country can improve access to healthcare but not without focusing on the existing system; introducing particular policies and improving the way health sector is governed. It seriously needs to generate evidence on the governance situation in the health sector. We need to recognise health as a basic human right and bring macro level governance reforms.

The writer can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com