Healthcare consultation: Pakistan uses more injections than India

Study shows that many basic health units only exist on paper.

LAHORE:

A recent study has found that though India has a population more than five times Pakistan’s, more syringes are used in this country than across the border, according to District Health Officer Dr Ghulam Mohyuddin.

“This is because patients here want to feel better quickly and doctors give in to their demands. But it results a higher rate of infectious diseases spread due to the re-use of syringes,” Dr Mohyuddin told The Express Tribune on Saturday at the sidelines of a consultation of private and public health experts on basic health facilities in the province.

Asked how the use of syringes could be curbed, he said doctors should recommend the oral version of drugs wherever possible. “Use injections when the patient is unconscious and cannot swallow the medicine,” he said.

Dr Mohyuddin said that there was no regulation of private laboratories and blood transfusion services. “Quackery is another fact that hinders provision of health services to people. Many people don’t go to a qualified doctor in the presence of a quack, even if the doctor charges less,” he said.

Dr Muhammad Afzal Saqib, Vehari’s executive district officer for health, said that on average, each Pakistani city required about Rs2.5 billion to cover the need for medicine of its population, but only Rs30 million was allocated for the purpose. “Just 0.54 per cent of our GDP goes to health. With this we have to run hospitals and maintain infrastructure,” he said.

Dr Saqib said that there was not enough emphasis on preventative healthcare. He said that the maternal mortality rate in Pakistan was too high and society could only be healthy when Pakistani mothers were healthy.

The event was organised by Strengthening Participatory Organisation. Salman Abid, SPO’s regional head, said that their studies had shown that many basic health units were active on paper but non-functional in practice. “This shows that these units are not being monitored properly at the district level,” he said.

He said that it was wrong of the government to divert funds for flood relief from the development budget. “Whenever we are hit by a natural calamity, the first thing the government does is to cut the development budget, mostly from the health and education sectors. This trend needs to be changed,” he said. Adviser to the Chief Minister Zakia Shahnawaz, who chaired the consultation, said that the government found it hard to provide health facilities in remote areas because doctors didn’t want to be posted there. “Young doctors don’t want to serve in remote areas despite getting good salary packages,” she said.

She said that health care providers needed to be more dedicated. “We worked with dedication after the floods and prevented an epidemic. If we work with the same dedication all the time, our health conditions will improve a lot,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2011.