Public-private partnership was the need of the hour to strengthen primary healthcare in the country which will improve indicators and provide basic health needs to urban slum populations, a health expert said.
Primary Healthcare Specialist SINA Clinics Ambareen Kazim Thompson talking to a news channel said that the necessary measures were needed to promote family medicine through faculty development, medicine development, policy reform and targeted research. She called for streamlining service delivery by implementing policies and engaging the private sector in delivery and monitoring. She said that Pakistan’s core focus should be on primary healthcare to diagnose ailments at early stages and reduce complications of chronic diseases, adding, investing more and better in primary healthcare was the key solution to ‘provide equitable, comprehensive, integrated and high-quality’ care. Replying to a question, she said limited access to health services along with inadequate knowledge of slum residents about healthcare facilities was the main barrier to the utilization of health care in the slums. SINA is the only healthcare provider working in the slums of Karachi that has a fully digitized patient management system and an electronic medical record system that not only holds records of each patient but ensures traceability and zero loss of patients.
