Pakistan’s health system in crisis: PMA calls for national health emergency

Pakistani doctors' leading think-tank calls on government to declare national health emergency amid systemic risks

KARACHI: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), the country’s premier body representing medical professionals, has called on the government to declare a national health emergency, warning that Pakistan’s public healthcare system is approaching a critical point due to workforce shortages, rising deaths, and shortages of essential medicines.

In a joint statement, PMA Secretary General Dr. Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, PMA Karachi President Dr. Ismail Memon, and General Secretary Dr. Shahid highlighted alarming gaps in hospital staffing, outdated infrastructure, and underfunded services, emphasizing that the constitutional right to health is increasingly under threat.

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Workforce crisis, brain drain

The association reported that in 2025 alone, over 3,000 specialist doctors left Pakistan, seeking better pay and safer work conditions abroad. Nursing shortages are equally severe, with ratios reaching 1 nurse per 2,500 patients, far below the WHO-recommended 1:3 ratio. Over 45 percent of rural Basic Health Units (BHUs) now function as “ghost clinics” due to lack of staff.

Rising disease burden, preventable deaths

Pakistan is grappling with simultaneous communicable and non-communicable disease crises. Contaminated water accounts for roughly 40 percent of hospital admissions, while polio and extensively drug-resistant typhoid continue to resurface. Non-communicable diseases are surging, with 34 million diabetes patients and breast cancer rates among the highest in Asia. Maternal and neonatal mortality remain high, with 27 mothers and 675 newborns dying daily from preventable causes.

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Medicine shortages, affordability crisis

The PMA criticized the deregulated pharmaceutical sector, which has driven chronic medicine prices up by 45 percent, and cited a shortage of 80 essential medicines, including insulin. Patients are forced to make impossible choices between food and life-saving treatment, highlighting a breach of social responsibility.

PMA’s urgent call

To avert full-scale collapse, the PMA called for:

• Immediate increase in the national health budget to at least 3% of GDP
• Freeze on life-saving medicine prices and strict action against black-market practices
• Declaring access to safe drinking water a national security priority
• Restructuring PMDC for transparent governance
• Security and incentive packages for nurses and rural doctors
• Establishing a National Non-Communicable Disease Commission funded through “sin taxes”
  Integrating environmental protections into national health policy

“The sweat and toil of our doctors cannot compensate for lack of political will,” PMA said. “Pilot projects and photo-op inaugurations are not enough. The state must take immediate, decisive action to protect both patients and healthcare professionals.”

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