The World Bank Country Director met with Federal Minister for National Health Services Mustafa Kamal, with the Additional Secretary Health and the Director General Health also in attendance, to discuss persistent challenges facing Pakistan’s health sector and potential sustainable solutions.
The World Bank Country Director lauded the Ministry’s performance over the past six months and expressed full support for the government’s ongoing health reform agenda, committing to partner on policies and technical support that can strengthen public health systems.
Mustafa Kamal outlined a programme of wide-ranging reforms to improve healthcare delivery, stressing expansion of telemedicine to extend services into remote and underserved communities. He described telemedicine as a key pillar of the broader health reform efforts aimed at improving access and reducing geographic disparities.
The Ministry is advancing the rollout of Universal Medical Records to safeguard patient data and enable continuity of care across facilities. The minister emphasised secure recordkeeping as essential for planning, monitoring outcomes and improving preventive interventions.
Highlighting the role of prevention, Mustafa Kamal said roughly 68% of diseases in Pakistan are linked to contaminated water and that the most effective solutions lie in ensuring clean drinking water, raising public awareness and coordinating action across sectors. A national integrated strategy is being developed to address waterborne illness at its source.
Reiterating that the primary duty of the health sector is to prevent people from falling ill rather than only treating disease, the minister stressed that reducing hospital overcrowding requires stronger emphasis on prevention, public health measures and community-level services. He reaffirmed the Ministry’s resolve to take special measures to protect people from preventable diseases and to build a more sustainable healthcare system for the future.
