KARACHI:Professor Asghar Channa has described issues Pakistan’s healthcare face and has tried to give their solution in his new book ‘Health Status, Issues and Policy Trends in Pakistan’.
The healthcare system in Pakistan is mired with a multitude of problems ever since the country’s inception. One of the main problems, as often pointed out, is that here the emphasis has always been on mega projects, initiated without planning and long-term thinking, while the policy-makers were usually not interested in horizontal programmes for primary health care, or provision of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities, which result in the breakout of epidemics such as dengue fever, malaria, typhoid, cholera, etc.
Asghar Channa, in his new book, has analyzed the shortcomings of the country’s healthcare system and tried to give solutions to the myriad problems that our healthcare system faces, and the role that various governing bodies and institutions can play in providing universal health cover to the length and breadth of the country.
The book deals with different issues related to healthcare in Pakistan. The author discusses in detail the history of healthcare and health management and mismanagement in the country and deliberates on different policy matters with strategies and reasons for its failure.
The book also discusses the role of civil society, regulatory bodies and their failure in addressing the challenges faced by the unfortunate people of this country. It further deals with primary health care and the role of different agencies such as the WHO and the World Bank, and professional bodies, postgraduate institutes, the role of media, civil forces and different government authorities.
Dr Channa has tried to explain the causes of the failure of our health care system and medical education, and given recommendations for improvement in the strategy for effective coverage of a maximum number of people for their health needs.
In most developed countries, the improvement in health parameters has been met with the political determination of the government and sustained policies, which are the most important tools to bring about a change in health behavior.
Unfortunately, frequent change of governments and political unrest in our country, coupled with other factors, led to poor policy implementation and outcome.
As stated by Dr Channa, there is no shortcut or quick-fix formula for health issues in the history of medicine. Like medical management of chronic disease, with an acute presentation, the solution to our healthcare problems can conveniently be divided in emergency and elective or short-term and long-term management.
This book will be helpful to policy-makers, stakeholders, donors, the UN agencies, international NGOs and students of public health who want to understand our failures and successes in the healthcare sector. It is hoped that the government in each province and their policy-makers will understand the importance of this book and use it in future planning for a better outcome.
The author, Prof. Dr Ghulam Asghar Channa, is a retired professor of surgery, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Ex-Vice Chancellor of SMBBU, Larkana. He has held various teaching posts at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, and is presently serving as Consultant Surgeon at Altamash Hospital, Karachi. During his extensive career, he gained a wealth of experience to address the issues prevailing in the healthcare system in our country.
Dr Channa has first-hand experience of the working of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and its abuse by various governments to achieve their political agenda; he has also faced the unconcerned and very slow bureaucracy which did not help achieve goals set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other United Nations (UN) agencies working in the field of health.
Dr Channa comes from a humble background and belongs to Larkana, a historical city of Sindh, Pakistan. He has witnessed the plight of the poor people and the facilities available to them in government hospitals in small towns as well as in big cities such as Karachi. His experiences are reflected in his book.