The photograph shows Sania Nishtar (centre) presenting a copy of Choked Pipes to the Chief Guest, Professor Rashid Jooma, Director General Health, (right) while Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan, (left) looks on.
The photograph shows Sania Nishtar (centre) presenting a copy of Choked Pipes to the Chief Guest, Professor Rashid Jooma, Director General Health, (right) while Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan, (left) looks on.
Karachi, 4 May: Oxford University Press launched its latest publication Choked Pipes: Reforming Pakistan's Mixed Health System written by Sania Nishtar. The book, which was also launched in Islamabad last month, is the first consolidated review of Pakistan's health system describing the Mixed Health Systems Syndrome and the challenges faced in an environment where publicly-funded government health delivery coexists with privately-financed market delivery. The author's vision for reform draws attention to a number of structural factors, both within and outside of the healthcare system, and lays emphasis on reform of governance and social welfare as an important adjunct to reform within the healthcare system. The book comes at a critical time in the evolution of interest in global health from diseases to systems and has a bearing on health systems in other developing countries most of them with mixed health systems with reference to current efforts aimed at achieving development goals.
Dr Sania Nishtar is the founder and president of a health sector NGO think tank, Heartfile, which today is the most powerful health policy voice in Pakistan. She is a member of many Expert Working Groups and Task Forces of the World Health Organization. She has also been an advisor to the World Health Organization on numerous occasions, has published over 100 journal articles and is the author of 4 books. She is the recipient of many national and international awards and holds a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of London and a Ph.D.
The launch ceremony was well-attended by public health professionals, public health policy-makers, academics, and the media. The Chief Guest, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Federal Minister of Health, was unable to attend the event on account of an urgent meeting at the Presidency and in his place, Professor Rashid Jooma, the Director General Health, delivered the keynote address. Other speakers present at the launch included Khalif Mohamud Bile, WHO representative in Pakistan; Syed Tipu Sultan, President-elect, Pakistan Medical Association-Centre; Javed Jabbar, former senator and Minister of Information; and Ishrat Husain, Dean and Director, Institute of Business Administration. They all appreciated Sania Nishtar's in-depth study and understanding of the issues plaguing the healthcare delivery systems in Pakistan and her suggestions of realistic measures for improving the situation, which are global in their relevance. In her welcome address, Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan, said that there is no doubt that the health care system in Pakistan needs far reaching reforms, and it is clear from Sania Nishtar's book that she understands the problem in depth. Her analysis of the conditions and her scholarship are impressive, she added.