The population per health facility has increased over the last ten years and more so in the rural areas. The number of doctors available in the rural is inadequate compared to the size of the population. Even with the implementation of the targets set in the Seventh Plan, the number of doctors available in the rural areas is likely to increase to only 36 percent of the total.
Although 85 percent of Union Councils have a primary health care unit, most villages still remain remote and do not have easy access to health facilities, doctors and retail chemists.
This is reflected in the relatively higher rural death rates. According to the Pakistan Demographic Survey, 1984, the crude death rate was 13 per thousand in the rural areas as against 9 per thousand in the urban areas.