PESHAWAR: The Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination, with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday, took the initiative to develop a Health Financing Framework to achieve the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) target and the health and poverty-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Pakistan.
As part of this initiative, the 3rd Consultative Workshop was held here and was focused on approaches to developing the National Health Financing Framework and drew on a body of recent work regarding health financing.
Dr. Sabeen Afzal, Deputy Director Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Babar Alam, Head of WHO Sub-Office KP, Dr. Shaheen Afridi, Chief Health Sector Reforms Unit KP health department, along with representatives of Khyber Medical University and several other relevant officials attended the workshop.
Dr. Sabeen, while leading the workshop, emphasized the need for a national framework on health financing and the adoption of global best practices of financial expenditure that can be exercised to achieve the goals of the Ministry. The workshop aimed to lead to a consolidated health financing framework.
Dr. Ziaul Haq, Vice Chancellor of Khyber Medical University, suggested that students perusing their public health degrees can conduct fruitful research on this topic. The Health Financing Framework is the main pillar for the self-sustainability of an institute.
However, Hospital Director Dr. Shehzad stressed the need for sensitization over health financial management and lamented that the directorate general of health services participating in the workshop would have made it a more appropriate activity. He suggested that such activities should be carried out frequently to sensitize the relevant authorities, and financial autonomy and powers should be rightly vested and exercised.
Dr. Babar Alam, Head of WHO sub-office KP, emphasized the urgent need to strengthen and strategize financing health and healthcare in the country to make concrete progress in advancing health financing.
Universal health coverage means that all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship, and progress towards UHC will contribute to inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
The Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination thanked the WHO for its technical and logistical support for this provincial consultative workshop, and other Health Department officials who participated in the workshop.
The consultative workshop in Peshawar is a positive step towards developing a National Health Financing Framework that will contribute to achieving UHC and the health- and poverty-related SDGs in Pakistan.