A cohesive national health policy keeping in view the requirements of healthcare and the resources available shall be developed soon. Khushnood Akhtar Lashari, Secretary Health said this in a roundtable meeting of healthcare financing here on Wednesday.
The working group on healthcare financing of the National Health Policy Task Force organised the roundtable meeting, attended by stakeholders including provincial representatives, civil society organisations, health professionals and donors. Lashari said the main objectives of the proposed health policy should be to improve health related quality of life of the common man, particularly the poor.
He said strategies shall be developed to improve utilisation of existing primary health care infra-structure in the country and make it more functional by staffing it with necessary manpower. This will result in a decline of health expenditures by the poor people and thus help in alleviating poverty, he added.
"Safety nets, social health insurance and exploring alternative models of health delivery should be the strategies of the task force," said Secretary Health. "Large network of private health providers, who are contributing substantially in providing healthcare, shall also be brought under the national health system," he added.
He said results of national health accounts which are being carried out at the moment will be another policy planning tool for us. Speakers in the daylong deliberations made presentations on reforming healthcare financing, social health insurance and micro-insurance.
The task force formed on the directives of the Health Minister is carrying out situation analysis of the existing health system and conducting an analytical review of the existing health strategies/programmes. The National Task Force on Health Policy is focusing on the specific areas through working groups namely National Health Service and Governance, Health Financing, Hospital Manage-ment, Medical Education and Human Resource Development, Ethics in the Medical Profession, and Pharmaceutical Sector.
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