Terrorism and public health

With the country’s healthcare management systems already in shambles, as they have been, perhaps, since the inception of the country, the fairly recent aspect of terrorism in its hospitals has vastly compounded the problem. Pakistan’s hospitals currently face a lack of funds, poor hygiene, lack of state-of-the-art technology, and being understaffed, among other things. However, in the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of hospital bombings, adding to the difficulties that hospitals already face. Some tragedies have occurred soon after victims of a prior bomb blast have been brought to the hospital for care. Given the fact that Pakistan has been dealing with terrorism for a decade, it is deplorable that so little has been done to modernise the public health system to enable it to deal with the fallout of terror-related incidents.

In the aftermath of the Bolan Medical Centre attack last week, there is major clean-up left to be done, including treating patients who have still not received care. However, these tasks are difficult to complete as there is a lack of human and monetary resource. Sadly, Pakistan only allocates 0.8 per cent of its GDP for health care, whereas international standards suggest an allotment of eight per cent of a country’s GDP for healthy human development. While the donation system should be supported, there is a requirement for improving the official system so that public health care is not so heavily dependent on donations. This calls for an increase in the budget allocation to enable hospitals to provide care to patients.

Indeed, the menace of terrorism has intrepidly and shamelessly entered our hospitals, which were once looked upon as safe havens for the injured. The public health system has been adversely affected. It is high time for the government to provide better protection to hospitals and to go further to capacitate hospitals so they can handle in times of terrorism-related emergencies.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2013.

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