The Speakers Demanded The Government To Immediately Intervene To Curtail The Prices Of Life-Saving Drugs In The Country
The Prime Minister should immediately act to bring down the medicine prices in the country to ensure their availability to underprivileged people who have been facing acute problems in getting access to quality health care services. This was one of the consensus demand by the speakers who addressed the 4th Pakistan Healthcare Summit-2021 organised by Consumers’ Association of Pakistan (CAP) here at a hotel.
The speakers demanded the government to immediately intervene to curtail the prices of life-saving drugs in the country so that they could be purchased by the patients belonging to middle and lower income groups. They said the medicine prices should be slashed keeping in view skyrocketing inflation in the country owing to which, people had a hard time finding quality health care services.
They demanded strict enforcement of the recently issued code of ethics of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to regulate relations between the pharmaceutical companies and doctors so not to incentivize the practice of prescribing medicines to the patients. They said the drug manufacturers should be taken to task by the government in accordance with the newly notified rules of the DRAP for offering undue favours to the doctors for prescribing to their patients the medicines produced by these companies. They urged the medical practitioners to fully adhere to the general code of ethics of their profession to make sure that every ailing citizen in the country got access to the best health treatment services in an honourable way.
The speakers, most of whom were associated with the health profession, also demanded the government to readily issue health insurance cards in Sindh to treat underprivileged patients who had no other means to get access to quality health care services. They said the destitute people in Sindh should get the facility of health insurance cards as was the case of people in Punjab and Khybe Pakthunkhwa. Speaking as the chief guest on the occasion, Chairman of Higher Education Commission Sindh, Dr Asim Hussain, said that government should give more attention to different fields of health care services. He said it was unfortunate that health and medical services had remained neglected fields in Pakistan.
He said that getting best health care services was the fundamental right of every citizen, which should be fulfilled. He praised the effort on the part of the organisers of the conference to raise awareness about health care issues. Dr Hussain, who also earlier served as an Advisor to PM, said the industries had to suffer much due to coronavirus health emergency. He also euologised the nationwide efforts to tackle the issue of coronavirus. He appreciated the services of health care professionals and workers who valiantly fought against the spread of coronavirus.
The CAP Chairman Kaukab Iqbal said on the occasion that their association had been striving hard to protect the rights of consumers. He said the consumer protection act had been passed in all the four provinces of the country. He said that consumer protection departments had been constituted in different institutions. He said that they had been striving hard to ensure availability of the life-saving drugs in the country as he also acknowledged the role of Dr Asim Hussain in this regard.
Others speakers at the conference included Consul General of Malaysia Khairun Nazran Abdur-Rehman,CEO Dr. Minhaj A. Qidwai, former CEO Sindh Health Care Commission, Brig (retd) Azhar Manzoor Group Head Corporate Affairs Dr. Zia Uddin Hospital, University, Brig (retd) Malik Waqar Awan C.E.O Memon Medical Institute Hospitals, Brig (retd) Tariq Bungush , Medical Specialist, & Consultant APNA DIYLISIS KOHAT, Mr. Johar Minhal Regional Manager Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Salim Khan, DGM Exide Pakistan. Shahzeeb Sheikh Deputy Directr Sindh Food Authority , Former MNA Rehan Hashmi, Molana Azad Jamil