ADDRESSING a national symposium on primary healthcare, the Sindh chief minister said he visited a hospital in Thatta where the number of patients had increased more than 10 times.

This he said as a matter of progress. It is surprising that an increase in the number of patients at a hospital is a moment of pride for the chief minister whose very job it is to make sure the number of patients goes down owing to better healthcare.

In contrast, an increase in the number of OPD patients is a sign that people are falling ill more, and more frequently, due to multiple reasons, like unsafe water, improper sanitation, malnutrition, malaria and waterborne diseases.

Primary healthcare is all about ensuring that people do not fall sick and that they remain healthy. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasise the provision of universal health coverage for all, and their focus remains on primary healthcare.

Unfortunately, our provincial and federal governments are focussing only on tertiary facilities.

Our governments should provide water, sanitation and safe food to every citizen, and only then will the patient ratio start going down. It seems that governments like to see increase in number of patients to show the world that people have belief in government`s health initiatives.

We should feel proud only when we have less number of sick people, rather than showing apathy and lack of political will, and then boasting about having a large number of ill people seeking healthcare at government hospitals.

Aijaz Ali Khuwaja Karachi