Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The current economic crisis in Pakistan has badly affected the healthcare system as patients are struggling for essential medicines. The lack of forex reserves has affected the country’s capacity to import essential medicines.
As a result, local pharmaceutical companies have been forced to decrease production as patients suffer in hospitals. Doctors are forced not to perform surgeries due to the shortage of medical equipment and drugs.
As per local media reports, the operation theatres have less than two weeks of anesthetics needed for sensitive surgeries, including heart, kidney, and cancer. The situation might also cause job losses in healthcare in Pakistan, which will result in further increasing the suffering of people.
The drug manufacturers have blamed the financial system for the current crisis in the healthcare system and claimed that commercial banks are not approving new Letters of Credit (LCs) for imports.
Medicines shortage due to economic crisis
Pakistan’s medicine manufacturing is highly dependent on imports, with almost 95 percent of the drugs requiring raw materials exported from other countries, including China and the US. The imported materials have been stuck at the Karachi port due to the dollar shortage in the banking system.
The drug manufacturing industry maintained that the cost of manufacturing drugs is continuously increasing due to the sharp devaluation of the Pakistani rupee, rising fuel costs, and transportation charges.
Recently, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) asked the government for intervention to prevent the situation from becoming a disaster. However, the concerned authorities, rather than taking immediate measures, are still trying to assess the quantum of the shortage.
Drug retailers have said that government survey teams conducted field visits to assess the shortage of crucial medicines. The retailers revealed that the shortage of common but essential drugs impacts most customers. These medicines include Brufen, Panadol, Insulin, Disprin, Calpol, Tegral, Nimesulide, Hepamerz, Buscopan, Rivotril, etc.
