“I am not afraid to die, I simply do not need to be there when it occurs,” stated the all the time witty Woody Allen. However for a way lengthy can we dwell? Individuals in Hong Kong and Japan dwell for 84 years. Within the UAE and Qatar, for 83 years. In India, for 72 years. Life expectancy at start in Pakistan, alternatively, is 67 years. For males, it is solely 65. So, if you’re a Pakistani male older than 65, you’re lucky sufficient simply to be alive. These are in fact averages. However the inevitable query is: are we – the Pakistanis – dying too quickly?
Pakistan ranks third on the planet within the class of individuals affected by diabetes. The prevalence of hypertension (hypertension) may very well be as excessive as 45% amongst our grownup inhabitants. Hypertension and diabetes are main threat components for heart problems corresponding to coronary heart assault and stroke. An estimated 25 per cent of deaths in Pakistan are attributable to heart problems. To make issues worse, we’re additionally genetically predisposed to coronary artery illness. A examine of case topics from Pakistan, revealed in Atherosclerosis, linked coronary artery illness with genetic threat rating involving 21 variants.
There isn’t any such potion as an elixir of life or everlasting youth. So, what can we do? Our well being care is ranked 124th on the planet. One of many causes, along with institutional corruption, is misdirecting budgetary funds to tertiary hospitals as an alternative of investing in Preventive Healthcare. Preventive care begins with our first level of contact who must be a GP (Basic Doctor) also called PCP (Major Care Doctor). Tragically, for many people, our first level of contact is an Emergency Room Doctor within the ER of a hospital. By then, it is most likely too late. To keep away from this, we should see our PCP for normal check-ups and screenings beginning at a younger age. We should be screened for blood stress, diabetes, ldl cholesterol, most cancers, smoking, weight problems, and melancholy. These primary providers should be a part of a common healthcare system accessible to everybody at no cost!
Free for everybody? You wager your life!
In Pakistan, the richest one per cent of the inhabitants controls greater than fifty per cent of the nation’s whole wealth. The highest one per cent additionally take pleasure in an earnings share of 30 per cent whereas the underside 50 per cent of the inhabitants (half of the nation) have an earnings share of solely 11 per cent. Regardless of the gaping earnings inequality, solely 30 per cent of sufferers search medical care in public healthcare amenities due to abject circumstances and in lots of instances, particularly in rural areas, a criminally negligent well being care supply. So, the place do nearly all of the sufferers go? Determined to hunt higher look after themselves and their members of the family, they haven’t any alternative however to pay hefty quantities at a non-public well being care facility.
Paradoxically, every part seems to be spotless on paper. The general public healthcare supply in Pakistan operates at three ranges: major (major care physicians), secondary (specialists), and tertiary (hospitals). Major amenities embrace Fundamental Well being Items, Rural Well being Facilities, Dispensaries, Maternity and Little one Well being Centres, and Clinics. However, as we all know, the satan is within the particulars. Inadequate funding, lack of assets, incompetent and poor workforce, lack of satisfactory provides and gear, and docs and nurses who deal with their sufferers with apathy that may’t escape discover, all contribute to a scarcity of high quality healthcare supply,
We won’t lower corners. Our funds for well being expenditure must be instantly doubled if not tripled. And the majority of the well being care funds must be devoted to our major care system demanding strict accountability from our docs, managers, and directors. Any speak of a common well being protection by our authorities is nothing however a bunch of sizzling air until each citizen of Pakistan is supplied the next medical providers at no cost:
Bodily exams by a major care doctor; screenings and lab checks (blood work, x-rays, mammograms, and so on); caring for power ailments (diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and so on); annual check-ups; maternal and little one well being; household planning, smoking cessation counseling, diet counseling (corresponding to maintaining a healthy diet); and referrals to specialists.
The time is now. Carpe diem!