Islamabad, Feb 8 As many as 4,000 doctors left Pakistan for better opportunities in 2025. Skilled labour in Pakistan start looking for opportunities abroad since their graduation, at least in majority of the cases, a report said.
"New big data analysis by Gallup Pakistan, based on Bureau of Emigration records, shows around 3,800 to 4,000 doctors formally emigrated last year, marking a historic peak in medical migration from the country. Pakistan produces about 22,000 new doctors annually and has around 370,000 registered doctors," an editorial in Pakistan's leading daily The News International said.
"But for a population of nearly 250 million, the country would need at least 250,000 doctors to meet the WHO benchmark of one doctor per 1,000 people. While Pakistan appears to meet this requirement on paper, many registered doctors are not actively practicing. So why is our healthcare system a mess? The first issue is the inherent infrastructural and cultural problems that keep a large number of women doctors away from the workplace," it added.
According to a 2023 Gallup survey, 35 per cent of women medical doctors in Pakistan do not work.
Some do not work due to societal judgements while others remain unemployed due to increasingly difficult working conditions.
As transportation in Pakistan continues to remain a mess, many young women doctors opt some other job instead of worrying about travelling at night or odd hours.
Majority of doctors in Pakistan leave the profession due to low salaries being paid to them.
Previously, young doctors used to hold protest, where they highlighted the demanding work conditions.
However, the protests have almost vanished as successive governments showed no interests in listening to their demands, according to an editorial in The News International.
Healthcare facilities in Pakistan is concentrated in urban areas, implying that critically-ill patients need to travel to select few cities for accessing medical treatment. This overwhelms the already fragile healthcare centres in Pakistan's urban regions, resulting in healthcare workers being overworked.
Limited access to advanced healthcare infrastructure and research facilities also discourages ambitious professionals to stay in Pakistan, according to the editorial.
Doctors often feel frustrated over absence of modern medical equipment, training opportunities and collaborative environments in Pakistan and life abroad seems to attract them as they can practice in more technologically advanced healthcare ecosystems.
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