Healthcare collapse

Admittedly, there is an urgent need for prudent measures to confront the impending healthcare catastrophe to stave off the miseries of the ailing people, and to improve the deplorable condition of the country’s healthcare sector.

Red-tapism has always created hurdles in the way of having a better healthcare system than the one that exists today plagued by flawed policies. Taking into account government policies about the healthcare sector, which already faces several issues, there may well be a severe health crisis waiting in the wings. It is indeed worrying that basic medicines, like Disprin and Panadol, as well as life-saving cardiac pacemakers routinely become unavailable in the market.

The legal procedures, such as delays in opening letters of credit for importers, which is a condition for the registration of all medical imports with the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap), have further escalated the healthcare crisis. The government needs to addresss these critical issues urgently.

MUHAMMAD SALMAN

KARACHI