Health experts on Thursday stressed the need for strengthening public-private partnership to improve health facilities in the country.
The experts made the remarks at a seminar titled: ‘Role of Public-Private Partnership in Healthcare in Pakistan’, organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).
Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro said that social security initiatives must be executed and continued irrespective of changes in political regimes. She urged the legislators to monitor the quality of public services in their constituencies and address issues at the policy level.
The parliamentary secretary also suggested increasing awareness to fight the stereotypes and misinformation to address the trust deficit in public healthcare.
Senator Mehr Taj Roghani said that universal health coverage should be ensured and devised as financially sustainable mechanism by considering the income of the citizen.
“Public-private partnership, third-party monitoring, and evaluation should be introduced to prevent corruption, exploitation, and mismanagement,” she suggested.
Islamabad Health Regulatory Authority Chief Executive Dr Quaid Saeed said that "service quality in public healthcare was below average", which deterred patients from visiting public sector healthcare facilities.
He highlighted that the poor quality of care also increases patients' burden on tertiary hospitals as patients avoid going to primary and secondary healthcare facilities.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 10th, 2023.
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