HEALTHCARE: THE RIGHT INVESTMENT IN POST-COVID PAKISTAN

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the world realize the significance of healthcare. Many governments, including Pakistan’s, are now allocating more funds towards strengthening their healthcare systems. Resultantly, there is now a need to identify a key healthcare area for diverting funds based on Value for Money (VfM) analysis.

Ensuring Value for Money during COVID-19

Value for Money (VfM) analysis is an essential decision-making tool used for aiding the allocation of government funds. It aims to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of outputs for each penny spent. This analysis helps in picking up projects that are cost-effective and maximize benefit to the general public. It is also an accountability tool and aids in avoiding the plunder of public funds.

When observing government’s COVID interventions, some major steps dominate the scene and are immediately visible. These include government’s immediate response to the pandemic which was to increase the number of hospital beds and procure more ventilators. The provincial governments also created many temporary hospitals, which will disband in the post-pandemic period. All these measures, while fully justified, important and needed at the time, in terms of VfM prospects appear equivocal. On the other hand, responses that will have more of a long-lasting impact include: improving the capacity of existing health system to deal with a health emergency, introducing and expanding telehealth, and taking steps to allocate more funds to the health sector.