Conversation with Ms. Ambareen Kazim Thompson — CEO, SINA
Profile:
Ambareen Kazim Thompson has dedicated her life to working in Pakistan. With over 20 years of experience in the corporate sector, she decided to use her learnings to improve the social development landscape instead, giving back to society and supporting the most vulnerable. Although she holds dual citizenship in the UK, she has chosen to live and work in Pakistan and says “Karachi is home, it is my first love”. Ambareen brings problem-solving skills, a strong network and a “can do” attitude which helps to overcome the many challenges both SINA and its teams face in the field. Her vision for SINA is that of an organization with a national footprint, one that takes away at least 10% of the country’s primary healthcare burden, providing quality care for those that need it the most. “Access to health care is a fundamental right of every human being, every citizen of Pakistan, whether they can afford it or not, it is as essential as clean drinking water or the right to an education”.
PAKISTAN & GULF ECONOMIST had an exclusive conversation with Ms. Ambareen Kazim Thompson about SINA. Following are the excerpts of the conversation:
Removed from the bustle of central Karachi, and away from sight, urban slums house around 40% of the city’s population – a whopping 10.3 million people that are living below the poverty line, without access to proper healthcare. This number has now escalated with the influx of rain affectees, many of them suffering from waterborne diseases such as gastroenteritis, skin inflammations, malaria, dengue, typhoid etc.
With the help of donors, this year SINA has served 1.2 million people – from curing a cold to managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension – every primary healthcare need is taken care of. By diagnosing patients earlier, we have not only reduced the burden on the city’s limited public hospitals and emergency rooms, but we have extended lives. 40% of all patients at tertiary hospitals can be handled at primary health centers including managing diabetes & hypertension.
With 50% of all deaths in Pakistan attributed to chronic diseases, primary healthcare is the first defense towards the prevention of these unnecessary deaths. As we are all aware, medical education in Pakistan is expensive and limited seats become available each year. 50% of all those who qualify either do not practice, switch to other areas of interest like public health, or corporate opportunities or leave the country. For those who do serve, family medicine has not been a priority. The government too has not paid attention to this area until recently. SINA has expanded its outreach by setting up more clinics on the outskirts of Karachi, in the Gujjar Gadap belt, it has set up three clinics in the Baluchistan villages of Raees Goth, and Long Goth and is supplementing this with its six mobile clinics that will be operational by 2023.
90% of all the patients SINA caters to are Zakat eligible, they are assessed by trained Zakat evaluators who conduct household surveys and evaluations to ensure that the Zakat funds are used only for those who are deserving of them. Donations received from corporate partners are used for other poor patients (non-Zakat category) such as minorities and low-income families. SINA has upgraded its lab facilities and has received ISO certification in recognition of its systems and efficient approach. SINA has also decided to set up pick-up points to expand its diagnostic arm in an effort to provide people with affordable, quality diagnostic care. SINA partners with several referral hospitals to help patients with hospitalization, and surgical needs and ensures complete information files are provided to patients so the hospital has a complete history of the patient and his or her disease profile.
SINA is the only healthcare provider working in the slums of Karachi that has a fully digitized patient management system and an Electronic Medical Record system that not only holds records of each patient but ensures traceability and zero loss of a patient. Our proprietary protocol-based system further bolsters the disease diagnosis protocols and is unique to community health. SINA has partnered with the government of Sindh in the expanded immunization plan to ensure essential vaccination for all under 2 year old, it runs Hepatitis screening programs, care for malnourished children, and has introduced a robust mental health program that supports thousands of victims of emotional, physical and sexual violence.
In the last year, SINA alongside its uninterrupted PHC services has ventured into many fruitful partnerships to implement much-needed decentralized, vertical outreach programs, especially in high-risk zones of Karachi, and include projects like health, HEP-C, care for victims of terrorism, TB, Diabetes, Immunization, Antenatal care, and Maternal nutrition projects. Through these projects, SINA has gained significantly in terms of value addition to the existing PHC service model.
Some organizations SINA has collaborated which include
• HEP-C project – Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF)-Identifying patients who had HEP C signs and symptoms and screening those patients via the HEP-C RDT.
• Mental health project with IRD (Interactive research and development) & Grand challenges Canada) Counseling services for depression and anxiety via trained lay mental health counselors for adult patients at SINA.
• Antenatal care & Maternal Macro Nutrition project with VITAL & Gates (Vital trust Pakistan and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMG), To provide ANC, PNC services and Macro and Micro Nutritional supplementation to the women in the Gujro- Gadap district of Karachi, Pakistan, Child Immunization Project with VITAL & Gates Foundation (Vital trust Pakistan and BMG) To provide vaccination services for children under 5 with a specific focus on super high-risk UC’s within and or in the periphery of Karachi which has low rates of immunization coverage and high incidence of infectious diseases.
• KEPS (Karachi Enteric Pathogens Surveillance) Aga Khan University Hospital (AKU) & BMG, Surveillance for enteric pathogens in sewage in Karachi for identification of circulating enteric pathogens in Karachi- study population children and adults
• NUTRIMAM: The Macro Nutritional Management of Moderate Wasting in children 6-24 months of age with acute illness with AKU & WHO.
SINA, in collaboration with Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited PSX, and Pakistan Cables set up flood relief camps on the outskirts of Karachi at Raees Goth and in Baluchistan at lohi goth, Dadu & Iakhra where more than 3400 patients were catered. The refugees were offered basic medical checkups, doctor consultations, and medication for their well-being. Ante and post-natal services were also provided to expectant and new mothers along with specialized services for children.