Presented the key findings from our study on "Assessing Quality of Primary Health Care (PHC) services in the Public Sector in Pakistan - A Health Systems Research using Multi-method Approach" at the National Symposium on Primary Health Care held at Aga Khan University (AKU). This study was conducted by SPHERE Pakistan and was awarded by Aga Khan University with funding from the Gates Foundation.
The study was conducted in four districts of Pakistan, and data were collected from selected BHUs and RHCs through facility reviews, staff interviews, client/patient experience documentation, and direct observations of health service delivery.
While Pakistan has improved a lot in terms of service coverage, the quality of services provided remains low. It's now time to focus on quality in addition to utilization. A high utilization with low quality will never lead to the desired outcomes, i.e., improvement in the health status of individuals and reductions in mortality rates.
Thanks to Sameen Siddiqi and Zahid Ali Memon for providing us with the opportunity to work on this important research work.
Thanks to our team at SPHERE Pakistan, especially Amama, for all the hard work over the last few months: Zainab, Mohammad Ali, Sidra, and Aized.
Thanks to the Gates Foundation for their support in advancing primary care learning agendas in Pakistan.
