Islamabad, April 26, 2026: Pakistan’s healthcare system must transition from a fragmented structure to a fully integrated industry to deliver sustainable outcomes, said Yasir Khan Niazi, Healthcare Strategist and Group CEO of GAK HealthCare International.
Speaking on the future of healthcare reform, Niazi emphasized that expanding services alone is not enough to transform the sector. Instead, he called for dismantling institutional silos and building a cohesive ecosystem that aligns all components of healthcare delivery.
“Healthcare must be understood as an industry in the true strategic sense — one that delivers measurable health outcomes, builds human capital, enhances productivity, and strengthens national resilience,” he said.
Niazi noted that Pakistan’s healthcare system currently operates as a collection of disconnected entities, including hospitals, medical colleges, pharmaceutical firms, diagnostic centers, and allied services, rather than a unified framework.
Highlighting key structural challenges, he pointed out that healthcare financing remains highly fragmented. Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ National Health Accounts shows that more than 50 percent of total health expenditure is borne out-of-pocket by patients, reflecting weak risk pooling and limited financial integration.
“This dependence on out-of-pocket spending demonstrates that we are not functioning as an integrated healthcare industry, but rather as isolated service points,” he added.
Despite progress in expanding access, including coverage of approximately 138 million people under universal health services in 2023, Niazi said millions still face significant out-of-pocket expenses. He cited findings from the WHO–World Bank Universal Health Coverage update, which highlight persistent gaps in financial protection and system integration.
He further observed that Pakistan’s total health expenditure stands at around 2.9 percent of GDP, significantly below global benchmarks, underscoring the need for structural reforms rather than incremental improvements.
“For healthcare to function effectively as an industry, financing, service delivery, medical education, diagnostics, and digital health systems must operate within a unified framework. Fragmentation limits efficiency and reduces overall impact,” he said.
Referring to global evidence, Niazi noted that well-integrated primary healthcare systems can reduce unnecessary hospital admissions by up to 30 percent, while improving cost efficiency and health outcomes.
“This is the shift Pakistan needs — from reactive treatment models to a preventive, integrated, system-driven healthcare architecture,” he said.
He stressed that the future of healthcare in Pakistan will depend not on the performance of individual institutions, but on the strength of an integrated national ecosystem.
“To improve outcomes, reduce financial burden, and build a globally competitive healthcare sector, we must move beyond institutions and focus on systems,” he added.
Niazi concluded that such a transformation would strengthen both public and private sector capacity while positioning healthcare as a high-value economic industry linked to investment, innovation, employment, exports, and long-term national development.
“This is the direction healthcare leadership in Pakistan must now choose to lead,” he said.
