Over 80pc of Balochistan’s population lacks primary healthcare, says health secretary

QUETTA: More than 80 per cent of Balochistan’s population does not have access to primary healthcare facilities despite reforms introduced by the provincial government, Balochistan Health Secretary Mujeebur Rehman said during a meeting at Turbat Teaching Hospital on Sunday.

The meeting was attended by medical students, doctors and relevant provincial officials. Mr Rehman said the province’s health sector was confronting major difficulties because of Balochistan’s vast geography, hard-to-reach areas and limited resources. He said the government was nevertheless taking steps to improve the healthcare system.

Mr Rehman said ‘hard decisions’ were needed to reduce the gap in healthcare access and added that relaxation in rules and regulations was also required in some cases to improve the sector.

He said more than 15 major reforms and initiatives had been introduced over the past one and a half years. According to the health secretary, the provincial government had promoted 600 to 700 medical officers to help address the shortage of doctors. He added that special exemptions had also been obtained from the cabinet to remove administrative obstacles in several matters.

He said human resources remained the biggest challenge for the health sector, adding that this made it difficult to ensure round-the-clock service delivery.

Budget and governance challenges

Drawing a comparison with Punjab, Mr Rehman said Punjab’s health department budget was around Rs550 billion, while Balochistan’s total development budget for all sectors was about Rs250 billion. He said this disparity made governance a major challenge for the province.

The health secretary also said the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan was approving seven departments for the teaching hospital. He said the approval would enable specialist training for doctors and would also contribute to better healthcare services for the public.

Digitisation and connectivity plans

Mr Rehman said digitisation in the health sector was being accelerated. With Suparco’s cooperation, he said, around 1,500 health centres would be given direct satellite connectivity.

He said the connectivity would support telemedicine services, live streaming and more effective performance monitoring.

Mr Rehman also said Balochistan was facing acute shortages in roads, education and health infrastructure, and that these shortcomings were directly affecting the province’s health indicators.

Addressing medical professionals, he urged them to improve their services and said the real strength of any institution depended on the performance of its workforce. He added that while the government could provide facilities, the responsibility for quality service delivery rested with doctors and staff.