Health has remained a major issue in the economic development of any country as it plays a pivotal role in determining and increasing the human capital. It is the primary human right that is necessary for every individuals social well-being. It contributes towards the development and economic growth of a country. A country whose citizens would be healthier will prosper in a more befitting manner.


Healthcare reforms have acquired severe attention in developed countries from diagnosis to clinical practices. Pakistan being a developing country is facing many reforms in healthcare industry. It is interfacing extreme tribulations in healthcare delivery, that its results are observed at district level to provincial and federal.


The healthcare sector of Pakistan has been fragmented from the primary situations to the personalized era of medicine which has resulted in poorly coordinated patient care. Thus, quality healthcare has remained a hostage to the lives of common people in general and the poor ones particularly.


Healthcare sector in Pakistan revolves on the threshold of state-policies. Less than one per cent of GDP is spent for healthcare sector in the country which is one of the lowest ratios in the world. Pakistans infant mortality rate is pretty high, and majority of the patients lose their lives by Pneumonia, Diarrhea, complications in pregnancy, and other complex diseases.


Nearly, 70 per cent of Pakistans population lives in rural areas, where standard facilities are not available. Due to the lack of facilities and scarcity of resources people live a life below than the poverty line. Another, leading cause is that most of the private health-care centers are located in the urban and metropolitan areas, where poor community of rural areas is usually unable to reach. In rural areas, there are very few number of basic health units (BHU) available, but all of them are either non-functional or do not contain the adequate facilities and services. They dont contain the sophisticated equipments and well-trained staff. As a result, proper healthcare delivery in rural areas is still not a reality.


There are so many factors plaguing Pakistans healthcare sector. Anyone who takes on the challenge would be hard-pressed to find its starting point. It is inadequate, inefficient and costly. Primary healthcare facilities are too expensive that a common person can hardly afford it. These poor conditions in the health sector have given birth to poverty, malnutrition, inequality, high population growth and infant mortality.


Even in this cutting-edge technological era of modern world, yet old traditional methodologies are being practiced in general.


Pakistan, being a developing country is lacking in the initiation of technology in the healthcare sector.


In developed countries where physicians are engaged to save lives of patient throughout technological advancements like Telemedicine, E-health and real-time video conferencing techniques; there a backward south-Asian country Pakistan lacks behind the reality of such advancements.


Therefore, the value of the healthcare in Pakistan is still below than the standard line. Durable technological framework is needed to bridge the gap between advanced healthcare facilities and the patient-care delivery.


Pakistans healthcare system needs a firm, universal, affordable and economic action plan that should be implemented by the state throughout the country in order to make the facilities able to reach at the doorstep of every individual patient. It is the only way that can lead the country to compete in a globalised world.


The writer is Chairman Biomedical Association of Students for Excellence (BASE), B.E (Biomedical Engineering), Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan.

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