ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi called for greater focus on promoting preventive healthcare in country which is not only cost-effective but would help reduce disease burden.

He said Pakistan, being developing country could hardly afford to fully meet healthcare needs of its over 220 million population through curative treatments due to limited resources.

President gave these remarks while chairing fourth meeting of Senate of Health Services Academy (HSA, at Aiwan-e-Sadr. President Alvi said that Pakistan needed to make goal-oriented and time-bound plans to improve its public health sector, adding that preventive healthcare should be priority of country’s health policy.

He highlighted that some countries had tremendously improved their health sectors by focusing on preventive health and investing in intellectual development of their human resources.

Meeting was briefed about impacts of global warming and climate change which would likely increase burden of diseases due to rising temperatures. Meeting stressed need for exploring funding options from international donors for research and development in public health sector.

It was emphasised to develop a resource mobilisation strategy to meet future financial needs of HSA as well as healthcare programmes in country. Meeting also underscored the importance of devising National Plan for Public Health to effectively address challenges being faced by country’s health sector.

Meeting endorsed minutes of 3rd Senate meeting of Health Services Academy.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 08 2023

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.