Summary The promise of providing better health facilities is still a dream for the common man.
(WebDesk) – Its election season and like always, prominent political leaders are shouting enchanting and exciting slogans in order to attract more and more people to support their political cause and vote for their party’s respective candidates. The people, however, are aware of the fact that many of these leaders only make false promises just to excite the common man momentarily.
One such promise that was made in the previous elections by almost every party was to pay collective attention to the betterment of health and advancement of its facilities in all the four provinces of Pakistan. Halfway through 2018, however, we see that no special attention was paid to the all-important cause.
Basic health facilities that were earlier promised, have still not been provided to many hospitals across Pakistan. Photo: siasat.pk
It was promised by the electables that approximately 2% of the economy was to be spent solely on the health benefits in Pakistan but as we know it, that wasn’t to be the case.
According to the promises, over 700 billion rupees were to be spent on the health department on an annual basis but statistics suggest otherwise. According to various reports and stats, only 112 billion has been spent on the health in first six months of the current year.
Dr.Abid Salehri says: “Health should become a permanent part of the constitution so that the fight and controversy with regards to provincial and federal allocations of the funds will no longer remain an issue. This way it will become the state’s responsibility to take care of the deteriorating health conditions of the country.”
A photo of health expert, Dr.Abid Salehri. Photo: Screenshot
Similarly Nabeela Kanwal, another health expert, exclaims: “the mortality rate of children under the age of five years stands at the same number today, as it stood five years ago in 2013. As a country, we still rank second with respect to the neo-natal mortality rate, which is very alarming. This stat in itself, is an indication that our health departmental status is still the same as it was five years ago.”
A picture of health expert, Dr.Nabeela Kanwal. Photo: Screenshot
If Pakistan is to progress as a nation, health should never ever be compromised at any cost. So, in order to improve the sorry condition, the state needs to allocate more funds to the health department in the upcoming budgets and ensure effective implementation.
Compiled and Edited by: Raacikh Asghar
