In recent news, the Ministry of Health has launched Good Governance for Medicines (GGM) programme in Pakistan in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO). However, in a country where corruption level stands at startling levels, the implementation of such a programme is not going to be painless for the health ministry.
Sources say that the purpose of the programme is to strengthen the governance framework in order to prevent corruption within the pharmaceutical industry. The GGM is a three-step programme entailing national transparency assessment, development of national GGM programme and lastly its implementation.
The move comes against the backdrop of a recent perception survey by Center for Global Development on governance and corruption in public health care systems that showed that 95 percent of the respondents perceived healthcare as one of the highest corruption areas in Pakistan. These results somewhat sit well with the finding of another survey by Transparency International that showed that 10 to 25 percent of public procurement spending including in the health sector is lost due to corruption round the globe; so you can imagine the case for Pakistan.
Moreover, a study done by a health-sector think tank Pakistan's Health Policy Forum in collaboration with Department of Health and Transparency International highlighted that corruption in the healthcare sector does not always have to be monetary in nature. To mention a few, deliberate lack of oversight by public officials, inattention to staff accountably for misconduct, ghost workers, unfair hiring practices have been regarded as some non-monetary forms of corruption among others. That said Pakistan's healthcare system needs to go through a major revamp, especially when it comes to public sector where both monetary and non-monetary forms of corruption are widespread at alarming levels.
Also, governance issues at political level, by and large, explain the reason behind the poor pharmaceutical regulatory framework in the country. The recent scandal of drug reaction among patients in Lahore is a wake-up call for the government to reinforce the regulatory mechanism. This sector should in fact become one of the top priorities on the governments agenda.
To put things in perspective, our healthcare system needs a solid foundation which can be achieved by bringing transparency in the system. And the GGM programme may indeed be an important step towards this. But, without the government imposing a stringent regulatory and supervisory environment to limit corruption levels, its all pointless.
Remember how the national drug policy introduced in 2003 fell short of bringing the desired results. Although the policy focused on all important issues to ensure availability of drugs, their safety and quality; it lacked its focus on addressing governance related issues--the prerequisite of any policys effectiveness.
Still then, the initiative taken by the health ministry is in the right direction and one expects it to be far-sighted approach rather than a mere political move!
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