Abstract:
Pakistan has a large and dispersed primary public health system that gives
citizens access to trained doctors and staff, and to subsidized medicines. However,
both the use of these facilities and health outcomes remain low. Improvements in
information and communications technology provide exciting opportunities to
leverage technology to improve management. This paper presents a detailed
qualitative and quantitative study of the institutional context in which such
interventions in the public health sector in Punjab would be trialed. We describe
the structure and management of primary healthcare facilities, present selected
results from a survey of a representative sample of basic health units, and identify
some key issues. We also report and discuss officials’ responses to the question of
how services might be improved.
