MAPS are important for destinations. But travelling on the road to universal health coverage, we first need to understand the destination itself. The WHO’s definition of UHC is: “when all people and communities can use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship.”
Let’s take Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as an example. How we can reach the destination where all the people of KP can use the quality health services they need without suffering financial hardship?
First things first. Do we clearly understand from which point we are embarking on this journey? In a nutshell, KP has a population of 40.85 million living in 5.88m households spread over 35 districts. Eighty-five per cent of the people live in the rural areas and the province has a population growth rate of 2.38pc, which means that every year around a million people are added to the population and poverty is again on the rise.
All of these people need healthcare, ie, protection from risks to health and diseases (preventive health services); health education to avoid risky behaviour (promotive health services); treatment for those already sick (curative services); assistance for those suffering or recovering from disabling conditions including inborn defects, injuries and diseases (rehabilitative services); and care for the terminally ill (palliative services).
The path to universal health coverage in KP is being paved.
The UHC........