Govt urged to encourage new healthcare solutions using latest digital tools

ISLAMABAD: The government should encourage new healthcare solutions using the latest digital tools to help people in getting timely, affordable health treatment.

While talking to Business Recorder, Managing Director and founder WoW Health, Sikandar Zaman said that accessibility and affordability were major issues that Pakistanis faced when it came to health services. “Citizens often could not reach the relevant doctor and reach an available doctor which usually becomes further complicated for the patient due to delay in reaching relevant specialists and being mistreated in the hands of local healthcare professionals without knowing if they are genuine or fake.

“There are many problems that hinder Pakistanis from getting timely, affordable health treatment. There are certain cases when going to a doctor is simply not possible.

“Almost 60 percent of the population resides in rural areas, and one doctor is available for 4,327 people. Looking at these stats, we can say with absolute certainty that bringing accessibility to the healthcare sector is absolutely necessary. The fact of the matter is that quality care needs to be available to everyone, everywhere and anytime.”

He further stated that mainstreaming digital health services could help reduce gaps in the health workforce, and improve timely and professional medical advice, especially in rural areas and for females and the elderly.

“Keeping in mind the desperate need of Pakistan to address two key challenges of the health sector - affordability and accessibility, we founded this start-up WoW health to cater for the needs of citizens to reach relevant, certified and qualified doctors via phone call rather than going to quacks sitting in the street and corners of the country. With this service, anyone can consult a relevant doctor for less than rupees 100 over a phone call 24/7 and can save time and money in the time when the country is going through a tough economic situation and every citizen is being affected by that,” Zaman said.

The out-of-pocket expenditure in the healthcare sector is outrageous. Every year, more than 14 billion is spent on physicians alone. These include appointments made for casual health issues like cold and flu. Additionally, 287.002 billion is spent on pharmaceuticals and 13.222 billion on labs and diagnostic services. The outrageous costs of healthcare services in the country hinder many patients from getting the care they need.

There is also a shortage of doctors in the country. Reportedly, there were 245,987 registered doctors, 27,360 registered dentists and 116,659 registered nurses in 2020 against the whopping population of more than 240 million. A physician (per 1,000 people) in Pakistan was reported at 1.1179 in 2019, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Digital healthcare solutions have the potential to enable qualified health professionals to offer services regardless of location and can enable more efficient servicing of patients by optimizing utilization of staff and requirements.

Zaman believes that a key issue here is when doctors often do not have access to the most developed medical equipment or medical research which hinders them from providing timely or accurate diagnoses, offering them the best treatment option or simply being able to administer treatment.

WoW Health has started such services for Pakistanis to connect patients with specialist doctors in the US, who have a better chance of offering potential alternative treatment options for complex diseases. WoW Health introduced a very unique health service called ‘Second Opinion’. With more than 350,000+ US specialists on board, this service enables Pakistanis to get expert opinions from a panel of US doctors for rare and critical health conditions.

Zaman urged that the government should appreciate the new healthcare solutions that are being introduced in the market to fight against these issues by using the latest digital tools to help people get relevant advice with affordability and convenience.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022