Messages
It is a matter of great pleasure that PPHI-B has published it website. On this occasion, I advise PPHI-B professionals come out from routine work with innovations in program, ideas or practices that are implemented, adopted or disseminated in health services delivery. It is about doing things differently. The incorporation of innovation is often discussed in terms of the 'Diffusion of Innovations' theory, which focuses on the qualities that make an innovation successful, how well it is accepted by health professionals and having an understanding of how different patients and clients use the innovation.
As a health promoter I tell you that burden placed on the primary health care sector has increased due to decreased low financing and priority of incentives to implement prevention strategies. I suggest some valid points regarding the opportunity to reduce the cost of healthcare through 'relationship-centered primary care', which moves from individual care towards community care. Given the importance of prevention in the fight against the current spiraling burden of preventable disease and the lack of utilization of prevention initiatives, it is imperative that we find effective ways to manage both treatment and prevention in a primary care setting.
Ensuring that women are as healthy as possible during their pregnancy is important to guarantee the best possible start in life for their child. It is some of the major activities which are being undertaken by the PPHI-B towards improving maternal and infant health.
Developed countries struggle with the demands for quality, specialized care, undeveloped countries try to balance service coverage with cost containment, and poorer countries focus on the provision of basic health care and the escalating burden of lifestyle disease. Innovations in these vastly different settings need to be tailored to the settings and end users. We need to investigate the possibility of using new technological innovations to improve patient care and maximize opportunities that streamline processes in order to see the benefits across all sectors of primary health care.
Innovation does not need to be novel or ground breaking; it just needs to be something that you have not been tried before – something different. It could be as simple as setting up online appointments that are linked with standard procedures such as handwritten ledgers or computer scheduling. This additional option can signicantly improve accessibility, particularly with the increased electronic connectivity that has become part of the everyday-life of younger generations.
As with any new innovation, it is essential to plan well, implement in full as intended and evaluate its effectiveness in the short and long term. In the last but not least there are many health promotion innovations that could benefit the PHC sector and assist in the continuity of care across the entire health care system. It is up to health professionals and workforce to embrace the idea of change through innovation and to make a concerted effort to implement the same.
Munir Badini
Chairman
I am pleased to present the People's Primary Healthcare Initiative Balochistan, Annual Report for the year 2023. The Annual Report highlights the significant work that has been undertaken to improve the health care system across the province over the last year.It has been truly inspiring and heart-warming to see how our health workers, overstretched as they were, pulled together during challenging. The spirit of healthcare as a calling seems to have been
restored. We pay tribute to all health workers including those who succumbed to floods 2022 and 2023 fall and epidemics of acute watery diarrhea, cholera, malaria, dengue and Congo Crimean hemorrhagic fever whilst saving lives. Floods resulted in diversion of health system resources, overstretched health systems especially human resources, disrupted health services, worsened the state of communicable and non-communicable diseases (including mental health), and exacerbated existing inequalities and poverty. As the country recovers from the pandemic of Covid 19, we need to deal with the setbacks, leverage the gains made and move forward with health priorities. We need transformation in our health system that focuses on family and community health, disease prevention, promotion and directing scarce resources toward the groups most in need, especially expectant mothers, infants, children, and the infirm elderly. We need to build a health system that combats with the conditions that lead to poor health nutrition, unclean water, poor sanitation, zero vaccinated children, and outbreaks of malaria hence, reducing the expensive curative treatments. In 2014, the United Nations cited Cuba as an example: “Cuba has a lot to teach the world about its preventive health system, which has achieved important results such as low mortality, long life expectancy, and universal health coverage”. The organization appealed to governments to follow the example offered by the island: “Health must cease to be a privilege for the few and become a right for all”.
We call upon all our policymakers to assist in realizing this noble ideal. I look forward to building on the strong foundations created during these past years to ensure that the immediate and long-term impacts of the pandemic and epidemic, as well as the health inequalities that exist in our communities, are fully addressed. I am committed to improving the health outcomes of PPHIB by ensuring everyone has access to a strong and resilient health system that is available for them when and where they need it.