Doctors more focused on curative medicines instead of preventive advices: President Alvi

KARACHI: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday, while holding doctors responsible for the lack of creating awareness among patients, said doctors were more focused on curative medicines instead of preventive advices.

He said the onus was on doctors to bridge information gap to overcome health challenges, including mental health and breast cancer, being faced by patients in almost every house of the country.

He stated this while addressing a programme titled ‘Spirit of Female Entrepreneurship and Medical Leadership’ organised by Sehat Kahani at a local hotel.

President Alvi said Information Technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (IA) were the modern tools to deal with health challenges. He said no solution was possible without them, the official news agency reported.

“Every house is going under mental stress,” he said, adding that it was the responsibility of the doctors to educate their patients on preventive measures.

He said the government launched a helpline through an application titled ‘Hamraaz’ to meet the challenge of mental health and the people who were facing mental illness or any depression condition could use it.

He said Hamraaz was launched in the tenure of former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif. He further said they did not have any rivalry in the matters related to public interest.

Dr Alvi said females become doctors and decide to marry and leave this profession. “I want to empower the females,” he said, adding that the country had limited resources and those should not go in vain.

He said telemedicine emerged in Pakistan in the times of COVID, which was the need of the hour.

Dr Alvi also stressed the need for quality education and health and said the country could not develop without them.

He said two 28,000,000 children were out of school in Pakistan.

Chief Executive Officer of Sehat Kahani Dr Sara Saeed Khurrum, while addressing the event, said Sehat Kahani could be accessed easily by anyone in need of medical consultation.

She said the app was also providing opportunity to female doctors to join the digital health facility to advise their patients online.

Earlier, President Alvi distributed shields among female doctors and appreciated their services to the patients online.