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| June 7, 2005 | Tuesday | Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1426 |
Rs9.4 billion earmarked for health projects
ISLAMABAD, June 6: The government has earmarked Rs9.4 billion for the development of health sector in the budget for 2005-06, a 68 per cent increase over the allocation of Rs5.5 billion in the outgoing year. Of the budget for the sector under the Public Sector Development Programme, Rs8.4 billion will be met from domestic resources and Rs1 billion will be foreign assistance.
“Priority will be given to health programmes like prevention and control of blindness and hepatitis and women’s health at the lowest level,” said Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan in his budget speech.
The estimated cost of the 66 projects under the PSDP for the sector, including 27 new plans, is Rs57.2 billion, on which Rs8.9 billion has been spent and Rs4.8 billion carried forward.
The government has earmarked Rs4 billion for the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care. The estimated cost of the programme is Rs21.5 billion and Rs5.8 billion have been spent on it.
An amount of Rs1.1 billion has been earmarked for the Expanded Programme of Immunization. The cost of the project is Rs1.14 billion.
The allocation for the Enhanced HIV/Aids Control Programme is Rs253 million. The cost of the project is Rs2.8 billion, of which Rs220 million has been spent.
The total cost of the 27 new schemes is Rs13.243 billion and Rs1.9 billion has been earmarked for those in 2005-06.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has already announced that Rs2.5 billion will be spent on prevention and control of hepatitis, including Rs300 million during 2005-06.
The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Blindness will receive Rs310 million. The cost of the project is Rs2.77 billion.
Allocations for new projects under the PSDP include: Rs297 million for 400-bed women’s and chest diseases hospital in Rawalpindi with a total cost of Rs1.3 billion; Rs250 million for establishment of an accident, emergency and ancillary services complex at Civil Hospital, Karachi, with total cost of Rs1.43 billion; Rs100 million to provide MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computed tomography) scanner for Civil Hospital, Karachi, Chandka Medical College, Larkana, People’s Medical College, Nawabshah, and Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad/Jamshoro, with total cost of Rs564 million; Rs100 million for strengthening of Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences with total cost of Rs587.4 million; and Rs50 million each for construction of buildings for Gomal Medical College, Dera Ismail Khan, improvement and standardization of district headquarters hospital, Nowshera, and Institute of Cardiology, Peshawar.
An amount of Rs32 million would be spend under the PSDP 2005-06 for the purchase of an MRI machine for the National Institute if Child Health, Karachi, and Rs50 million each to buy the machines for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, and the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical College (JPMC), Karachi. An amount of Rs10 million has been earmarked for modernization of diagnostic and therapeutic services at the JPMC.
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