PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has decided to declare showing national identity card mandatory for the patients, who visit public sector hospitals for treatment in the province, to differentiate between Afghan refugees and local people, according to sources.

They said that the step was taken to discourage Afghan nationals from getting treatment at the government-run hospitals at subsidised rate.

“We have decided that only those patients, who have Computerised National Identity Card, will be entertained. The order has come into play from February 1,” Dr Khalid Khan, medical superintendent of Hayatabad Medical Complex, told Dawn.

Officials say the decision has been taken to discourage Afghan patients

According to him, the decision was taken at a meeting of the hospital management committee following the death of a Mardan-based child owing to non-availability of beds in the wards.

“We have been receiving more than 50 per cent Afghan patients at the cost of local population. Previously, the hospital received funding from international donor agencies in lieu of treatment of Afghan refugees but mow there is no funding,” Dr Khalid said. He added that they were also considering a proposal to charge the Afghans double for their diagnostic and treatment services.

Read: Lady Reading Hospital: Epicentre for trauma victims in Pakistan’s northwest

Officials of the other two main hospitals -- Lady Reading Hospital and Khyber Teaching Hospitals -- are also considering similar mechanism to lessen the burden of Afghan refugees on their resources.

“Since the government has planned to repatriate Afghan refugees, there is a visible reduction in the number of Afghan patients,” a senior consultant at Khyber Teaching Hospital said. He said that the number of Afghan patients was drastically reduced with the government’s plan of sending them back.

“For the past few weeks, we have been receiving only a few Afghan patients. The beneficiaries of reduction in Afghan patients are the local residents, for whom these resources and facilities have been established,” he said.

In Lady Reading Hospital, the biggest hospital of the province, situation with regard to Afghan patients had under a sea change. “In most of the wards, we have now empty beds because Afghan refugees are not coming to the hospital. Earlier, most of the 1700-beds were occupied by them,” an administrative officer told Dawn.

Not only government-owned hospitals, but private hospitals and clinics are also not receiving the same number of Afghan patients as they received a month ago. “There is 50 per cent reduction in Afghan patients as they fear police, who check their documents,” senior health officials said.

They said that the government had planned to introduce a system on the pattern of Hayatabad Medical Complex in all public sector hospitals to put brakes on the arrival of Afghan refugees. “The Afghans have overstretched the local health facilities. Not only those Afghans, who live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Federally Administered Tribal Areas, but they also came from Afghanistan to seek treatment,” they said.

The officials said that modalities were being hammered out to stop them from seeking treatment in local health facilities because those were meant for local people, who paid taxes to the government.

However, some senior consultants have disapproved the government’s plan of denying treatment to Afghans. “Such an attitude will harm our sacrifices that we have been rendering by hosting them for 30 years. It will bring bad name to the country,” they said. Police were also harassing Afghan refugees, they said.

According to them, the legitimate Afghan refugees were entitled to free treatment because Pakistan was signatory to the UN convention of refugees.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2015

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