KARACHI, April 3: President Pervez Musharraf called upon the provincial governments here on Thursday to provide basic healthcare facilities to the common man.

He stressed the need for providing healthcare facilities to the poor and for focusing on the ethical aspect of the medical profession.

Addressing the 38th Convocation of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP), he said: “Bringing about qualitative changes in the life of the common man is high on the agenda of the government, and a crucial factor in this connection is the organization and delivery of better health services.”

Praising the efforts and achievements of the CPSP in training professionals and the recognition of its standards across the borders, the president said training and education, organization of health facilities and the ethical aspect of the noble medical profession needed additional effort and the attention of all concerned.

Talking about education and training, he said education and training of medical students should be such that their degrees and qualifications were recognized and honoured both in and outside the country.

“It is important that we have better educated and trained medical experts and practitioners at every level of health care. Better medical facilities at the primary and secondary levels will lower the burden on the auxiliary medical system,” he emphasized.

He deplored that there were empty buildings of Basic Health Units and Rural Health Centres. He said senior doctors should set example by serving in rural areas in the primary and secondary health services to ensure that healthcare facilities were provided to the 70 per cent of the poor living in rural areas.

President Musharraf asked the provincial governments to give due attention to the provision of primary and secondary healthcare facilities to the people. He praised the Punjab and Sindh governors and the Sindh chief minister, who were present at the convocation, for offering incentives and special pay to encourage doctors to serve in rural areas.

He also emphasized the need to equip the tehsil headquarters hospitals and said all kinds of specialists should be available in tehsil and district headquarter hospitals to ensure that the needed medical facilities were available to the people.

President Musharraf was highly critical of “unscrupulous doctors” who prescribed expensive drugs to poor patients to increase the sale of particular pharmaceutical firms for their personal gains.

He said senior doctors should set example by providing free treatment to poor patients, adding that this would encourage their juniors to serve the ailing humanity without the lure of lucre.

He said all the three aspects, training, organization and morality of doctors, were highly important for a true professional medical system in the country.

President Musharraf said his aim was to make the best use of the limited available resources and for which he called upon specialists to lend a helping hand to the government.

“Beginning from the training of young doctors under your charge to the teaching of basic human values of compassion, kindness and mercy, you can act as guide and give a new sense of direction to the profession as a whole. I think this is how you can pay your debt to society,” he emphasized.

Praising the role of the CPSP, he said it was gratifying to note that the college, as the premier institution of higher learning in the medical field, had made tremendous progress since its establishment in 1962. It had fulfilled its responsibilities of raising the standard of specialist medical education in the country by improving the quality of research, teaching and training.

He congratulated those who were awarded FPCP and MCPS degrees, diplomas and gold medals.

The President of the CPSP, Dr Sultan Farooqui, said the CPSP had taken the initiative of offering Fellowships in Health Management. It had provided training through workshops to 7,200 doctors in 2002 and the number of workshops held were 301. Till February this year, the CPSP conducted 59 workshops, which benefited 2,064 trainees and trainers. He also mentioned modernization of teaching methods at the college to keep doctors abreast of latest research and developments in the medical field.

The college is about to launch its conversion to IT-based medical education in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta.

Referring to the poor state of health care facilities at the basic community level, Dr Farooqui proposed to send consultants on a rotation basis to district health offices and also trainees to work under them for an initial period of six months.

This, he said, would ensure provision of proper health care due to the presence of the consultant and a full-time resident trainee and also equip doctors with skills necessary to alleviate the burden of disease at the community level, a competence much appreciated and in demand internationally.

The function was attended, among others, by the governors of Sindh and Punjab, Sindh chief minister, federal minister of health, corps commander, Sindh chief secretary, diplomats and elite of the city. — APP