Firstly happy 14th August to all, I think we should pray for Pakistan this time than celebrating.
May Allah bless our country through the most difficult times since its birth.
Now, what would you do if you were Pakistan’s H.M?
I would:
a) Review vaccinations system
b) Give more free Medical care, use government funds more wisely. Though I guess corruption has seen an end to that
c) Free medical care for children under ten and pregnant women and over 60’s
d) More advice on contraception, we can’t afford to have a huge population with big families already struggling to fed one person let alone saara dus logon ka haandaan
e) Maybe start grass-roots basic care programs, that way people who can’t afford medical care will know of some basic measures they can take for some problems i.e. fevers, better diet etc
Re: 14th August! If I was Pakistan's Health Minister...
You have made some very good points there.
One could go into a lot of detail while answering this question because there's really so much to think about as a health minister...
Along with the things u mentioned, I would start a nationally recognised programme in which healthcare workers (doctors/dentists/GPs/Surgeons/Medical Students etc) would get paid to spend a week in a remote village, giving free medical attention and free medicines to the patients in the area as well as educating the villagers about basic healthcare, hygiene, risks associated with this n that.... Perhaps 80% of the villages in Pakistan don't have any GPs/doctors available and the villagers are forced to travel to the nearest cities every time someone gets sick.... This programme would hope to provide every village, every small town in Pakistan with their own GPs/doctors on a rotational basis
Re: 14th August! If I was Pakistan's Health Minister...
Making it necessary for big employers to provide medical insurance to all their employees at affordable rates. But I guess health minister alone can not do it. It needs government initiative, similar to the US.
Generating ideas about how to improve conditions in government hospitals. There should be alternate sources of income for hospitals, because the government has no money (never will have).
Guys, I am sure everyone of us will have some nice ideas about how to make improvements in this field. And I can bet that if one of us is really made health minister then we can make difference with whatever ideas we have.
The problem in Pakistan is not that government people can not think or can not implement the ideas. It is that government people have other priorities when they become ministers.
This is the difference between us and them. We are discussing ideas with true intention of making improvements, but ministers (health or anything) have no such intentions. They are made ministers because of their "sacrifices" for party, and thus their intention is only to make money while the government lasts, and enjoy chai-paani.
In short, Pakistanis are very capable of making good plans. What is missing is things like intention and priorities.
