Uzair Bin Farid

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will upgrade its secondary healthcare system with the help of various international donors, especially the Asian Development Bank, WealthPK reports.

The funds received from various international will be utilised to provide the latest equipment to hospitals and basic health units in rural areas of the province. The upgradation of health facilities will help doctors and other supporting staff to provide better services to people after the recent floods that caused outbreaks of different diseases in the affected areas.

Dr Shakaib Kundi, a health practitioner in Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, told WealthPK that health was an important indicator of economic development and prosperity. He said that the growth of young bodies did not reach the level of a healthy human being in absence of favourable health conditions.

“In common parlance, it is known as stunted growth. When children do not grow up to be healthy individuals and mothers are weak themselves, essential opportunities are missed out by both,” he said.

Dr Shakaib said that people in developing countries like Pakistan suffered from chronic malnutrition and their children could not develop to their full bodily potential. “This costs Pakistan in terms of shortage of fully developed human capital,” he added.

He said that human capital was very important for economic growth and development. He said that human ingenuity was responsible for innovations. Innovation is the most essential aspect of competitive advantage in the present globalised world.

Pakistan has suffered from underdeveloped human capital. The country has been unable to fully develop the physical capital of its young population because of bad health conditions. Like many other health issues, Pakistan has so far failed in eradicating the crippling disease of polio. The childhood ailment has been eradicated around the world but Pakistan is one of the few countries where poliovirus is still in circulation.

Several other diseases, which hamper the full utilisation of the mental and physical capabilities of a child, are also the result of malnutrition and improper growth.

According to media reports, Asian Development Bank has approved the disbursement of $100 million to improve the delivery of health services at secondary hospitals by modernising infrastructure and equipment; ensuring implementation of clinical protocols, standards, and guidelines; and improving human resources planning and medicine supply chain management in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The money from the Asian Development Bank will give a much-needed boost to the health sector of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the wake of floods and redirection of provincial resources for the assistance of flood victims,” Dr Shakaib told WealthPK.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk