First Health Policy Forum held under the auspices of PIPH

6th May, 2015 Prime Institute of Public Health held its first Health Policy Forum on the theme of “Health Sector Issues: Budget 2015-16 Priorities” on 6th May, 2015. The forum was first of its kind in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and was chaired by the Honorable Minister of Health, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Mr. Shahram Khan Tarakai. Representatives from Department of Health, K-P, as well as, international NGOs were also present on the occasion. Keeping up with its commitment to academia, PIPH also invited students from other public health institutes to attend and learn from this unique opportunity.

Mr. Shahram Khan Tarakai, in his address said “We look towards our health experts in institutions like Prime Institute of Public Health for providing relevant evidence that can be utilized to effectively prioritize the health budgeting process”. He further added that health department will take all the necessary steps in building a sound collaborative platform with institutions like PIPH for policy dialogue and research aimed at addressing health sector issues.

Opening remarks for the forum were made by Professor Dr. Najib ul Haq, Dean, Peshawar Medical College, who emphasized the role of policy makers and professionals in health sector and indicated to the minister that there is an inevitable need for evidence based budgetary allocations in the health sector.

Dr. Ihsan ul Haq Director, Health Policy & Research Unit of PIPH presented comparative review of healthcare in Pakistan in general, and K-P in particular, mentioning a number of health indicators in Pakistan with its neighboring countries, and also gave provincial comparisons within Pakistan. He showed that K-P has poor indicators in many areas of health sector. He recommended a strong emphasis on primary health care, non-formal education, incentivizing and ensuring merit and accountability of health care workforce and resources.

Representing the International Growth Center, Mr. Muhammad Yasir Khan, Country Economist, highlighted the reasons leading to the low usage of Government run health facilities. He said “Patients demand reliability; as the unavailability of trained staff and medicine are the major reasons, which make the general public avoid government run facilities. The solution to this issue is to monitor the staff and to incentivize them”.

Lastly, Provincial Program Manager of the District Health Information System (DHIS), Dr. Javed Pervez, shared his inputs on the importance of Health information system and said that around 1400 facilities in the province are currently covered, constituting 96% of the total. “Our ultimate aim is free access to data by everyone and making available reliable data for evidence based decision making in health” he further added.

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First Health Policy Forum held under the auspices of PIPH