President Pervez usharraf on Thursday said the government's policy in healthcare was to benefit the people by improving advanced medical facilities in line with international standards.
Addressing at the inauguration ceremony of Burns Care Centre at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, President Musharraf said the government's health policy focused on providing primary and secondary healthcare facilities to the people at grassroots level, especially in rural areas.
The Burns Care Centre is a state-of-the-art unit at Pims, equipped with modern facilities to cater to the needs of patients with burn injuries coming from across the country. The 20-bed facility is the country's first ever Burns Care Centre established in public sector, which was started in 2003 and completed at a cost of Rs 398 million.
resident Musharraf said the mortality rate of burn cases in Pakistan was 46 percent as compared to 20 percent in the developed countries. He said the Burns Care Centre was an excellent facility to help alleviate the sufferings of patients with burn injuries under the supervision of competent doctors, which was earlier not possible due to the unavailability of such unit.
The President hoped that the setting up of Burns Care Centre would help patients provide timely medical treatment and also reduce the mortality rate. He said billions of rupees were being spent on improving the healthcare facilities and related it with great economic upsurge in the country.
He mentioned the allocation of Public Sector Development Programme during 1988-99 with an average of Rs 80 billion per annum, saying the allocation was raised to Rs 520 billion this year,. which directly helped in allocating big portions for primary and secondary healthcare.
President Musharraf said there was a dire demand for improving healthcare facilities in the rural areas in particular, with 60 percent of the population living there so as to lessen the burden on hospitals in bigger cities.
He stressed the need for establishing more Basic Health Units and Rural Health Centres with increased efficiency, saying it was extremely important to reach the poorest of the poor and provide them better health facilities. He referred to the ill-maintenance and pathetic conditions of BHUs in the past, which were even being used for cattle-keeping.
The President said the doctors and paramedical staff were now being encouraged to work in rural areas by giving them better incentives through attractive salaries and facilities. He said the government was also deliberating on introducing the concept of setting up Urban Clinics at the tehsil level.
"We are working on it. This would make great difference in the progress in healthcare by reducing reference rate to big hospitals," he added. He emphasized the role of Nazims in ensuring better functioning of BHUs and RHCs, and improving their efficiency.
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