Our healthcare system is in imbroglio due to series of crises in recent years. There was a health catastrophe due to disease spread after biblical floods in Sindh and other parts of the country. Water-borne diseases like dengue, gastroenteritis and cholera outspread was beyond imagination in recent months due to stagnant floods waters in one third of the country. 

And now the import restrictions are going to result in another huge crisis in healthcare sector as the import curbs on medical devices and surgical instruments and equipment have created a serious shortage in the medical sector and now the entire system is in snags as the medical and surgical instruments are becoming unavailable for carrying out surgeries and implants etc.

According to latest report by the Healthcare Devices Association (HDA), a serious disruption of the entire medical and surgical treatment facilities is looming large across the country in the wake of the recent curbs which calls for mandatory registration with the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) to be able to import the medical and surgical instruments.

Due to various reasons, the DRAP could decide on bulk applications during the last many years. As reported, it received a total of three lac applications, out of which it could only sort out three thousand pleas which shows a mammoth gap.

 The relevant authority also extended the date for registration till December 31, last year, but it could not help achieve the desired results. Now after December 31, no one can either import  or sell the unregistered medical devices and laboratory tests which point to serious crisis in the healthcare sector as the later will be unable to provide services for want of equipment and instruments, posing threat to lives of thousands of patients who will be unable to undergo the required tests and surgeries due to unavailability of medical equipment’s including implant devices, syringes, cannulas, MRI machines,  blood sugar, and blood pressure measuring instruments to ultrasound devices, X-ray, CT scans etc.

Since hospitals cannot provide services without these medical equipment and instruments, the situation is going to result in a catastrophe.

It may be be mentioned here that our healthcare sector rely on 90 per cent of the imported medical devices at local hospitals.

It is the government obligation to provide access to necessary healthcare but through the above-mentioned procedures, the same has been disrupted and the devastating reality is that countless patients will be at risk due to the impending crisis.

On the other hand, the difficulties in opening of LCs at banks across the country are also aggravating the situation.

Though the central bank has directed the banks to give top priority to payments of pharmaceutical industrialists and importers of surgical items/medical devices and diagnostic products, but the ground reality is otherwise.

Meanwhile, expert doctors and medical practitioners are also leaving the country in search of better job opportunities due to which the brain-drain situation is also aggravating.

Experts say that the recent wave of lawlessness due to the increased terrorists and militant activities across the country by the banned TTP and other militants and terrorists organizations after the Fall of Kabul to Taliban is also one of the main factors forcing the young doctors and health practitioners to opting for the foreign destinations for future living, in Pakistan which have forced thousands of highly educated and skilled healthcare sector workers to leave the country.

A comprehensive data by Bureau of Immigration said that there is a daunting 300 per cent increase in the numbers of young doctors and engineers who have settled aboard during the current so far for a bright future,

The numbers are unprecedented and can result in extreme brain drain situation in the country and experts fear that if the issues of double-digit daunting inflation, rising price hike, unemployment and continuing cost of life was not overcome, the situation can reach a critical level, creating a great vacuum  in our professional set up as the current galore of crises on the political, economic and social horizons as also the increasing lawlessness and law and order situation have darkened future of the youth and high professionals at home. That’s why they are opting for foreign lands for their future settlement.

On the other hand, the import ban is also resulting in shortfall of revenue collections,

Reports say that our revenue collection target has failed as the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has missed on achieving the goal of collection target for the last month of the last year by around Rs225 billion. There has been a sort of reversal trend in revenue collection as we witness a mammoth shortfall of its kind.

This sharp decline in imports is said to be the main factor behind this failure due to which the initial revenue collection is at Rs740bn against the projected target of Rs965bn in December last.  Financial experts say that the restrictions on Letters of Credit (LCs) have affected the imports in a big way. 

The major revenue sources like automobiles-CBU and CKD and other machinery witnessed a drop in imports as a result of the import containment policy of the government, and hence we are faced with revenue shortfall.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 06 2023

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