By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI- Pakistan Medical Association’s (PMA) Karachi chapter general secretary Dr Qazi M. Wasiq has said that Sindh government with a view to containing rush of ailing community at three major public sector hospitals – Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Civil and Abbasi Shaheed hospitals – should set up one hospital in each of the city’s 18 towns. Moreover, the government should concentrate its energies for the up-gradation of primary healthcare centres, taulka level hospitals and district level healthcare facilities as such measures would help minimize burden on teaching hospitals across the province, he opined. He also urged the government to create a congenial working environment in the city to check brain drain of doctors and other qualified and highly skilled people. TRAUMA CENTRES: He suggested trauma centers should be set up on major thoroughfares of the province to curtail accidents-related deaths. Dr Wasiq was of the view that more funds should be earmarked for preventive measures than for curative strategies. He regretted that although 65 to 70 per cent population of the country lives in small towns and villages, neither proper health facilities nor doctors are available for them. Meanwhile, Finance Secretary of PMA (Central) Dr SM Qaisar Sajjad said that the PMA has been constantly pleading to the government to increase health budget in accordance with the WHO’s (World Health Organization) recommendation i.e. 6 per cent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), but the government have been allocating merely 1pc or 2pc for this important social sector. “Even this meager amount is not judiciously utilized, rather a good percentage of it, is misused due to maladministration,” Dr Sajjad deplored. Elaborating, he said government must focus on improving primary healthcare system in the country by setting up health centres at local level so that people could be provided better health facilities on their doorstep. He also stressed the need for providing free medical facilities, including treatment, investigation and operation, to people all over the country. Pointing out that provision of quality education and health facilities are the prime responsibilities of the government, he said no country could survive in an era of hi-tech without education and proper health facilities. About public sector hospitals, the PMA leader said all the existing health facilities must be equipped with modern gadgets and latest equipments. At the outset, both the health experts urged both the federal and provincial governments to review the country’s entire health structure, or else the dream of bringing improvement in health sector cannot not be realized just by allocating `peanuts’ in each year’s health budget.
