Essential Package of Health Services Country Snapshot

Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Jenna Wright
Published: July 2015

Resource Description:

An Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) can be defined as the package of services that the government is providing or is aspiring to provide to its citizens in an equitable manner.

This country snapshot is one in a series of 24 snapshots looking at the governance dimensions of Essential Packages of Health Services in the Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Death priority countries. The snapshot explores several important dimensions of the EPHS in the country, such as how government policies contribute to the service coverage, population coverage, and financial coverage of the package.

At this time there does not appear to be a national-level EPHS in Pakistan. The best approximation for Pakistan’s EPHS is the provincial government of Punjab’s Essential Package of Health Services for Primary Health Care in Punjab (2013). Following the implementation of a constitutional amendment, the central government Ministry of Health was dissolved in June 2011. The recent devolution in health has greatly increased the responsibilities of the four provincial departments of health, of which Punjab is one. It appears the government of Pakistan had been working towards a national-level EPHS prior to devolution. In 2009, the Ministry of Health for the government of Pakistan published the National Health Policy, which contained six policy objectives and actions by the federal ministry and provincial departments of health. However, it appears this national EPHS was not finalized prior to devolution.

Essential Package of Health Services and Health Benefit Plans Mapping Brief

Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Lauren Windemeyer
Published: January 2017

Resource Description:

Many governments are scaling up health benefit plans, such as social health insurance, to increase population health coverage. This brief presents findings from a mapping between the services covered under the country’s prominent health benefit plan(s) to the country’s Essential Package of Health Services. The mapping analyzes the extent to which the plan(s) cover essential services.

This brief is for policymakers and program managers seeking to promote universal health coverage. It presents HFG’s findings and observations about the relationship between the services in an EPHS and the services covered in HBPs.