ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi on Friday stressed a greater focus on promoting preventive healthcare across the country, which was not only cost-effective but would help reduce the burden of diseases.
He said Pakistan, a developing nation, could hardly afford to completely meet the healthcare needs of its more than 220 million population through curative treatments because of limited resources.
He gave these remarks while chairing the 4th meeting of the Senate of the Health Services Academy at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
President Alvi said that the country needed to make time-bound and goal-oriented plans and improve its public health sector.
Preventive healthcare a priority
He said that preventive healthcare should be the priority of the health policy.
The president highlighted that some nations had tremendously improved their health systems by focusing on preventive health and investing in developing their human resources.
The meeting was also briefed about the severe impacts of climate change and global warming, which would increase the disease burden.
The meeting stressed the need to explore funding options from international donors for research and development in the public health sector.
