LAHORE: The Punjab government has reduced the health budget for the next fiscal by Rs5 billion compared to the current financial year.

Contrary to the official claim, the government allocated Rs279 billion for the 2019-20 fiscal, whereas the caretaker government had allocated Rs 284 billion for 2018-19.

Presenting the budget in the provincial assembly on Friday, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government minister claimed 20 percent increase in the health allocation but the budget document painted a different picture. Out of the total allocation for the next fiscal, the government earmarked Rs144.9 billion for the specialized healthcare & medical education department (SH&MED) and Rs133.9 billion for the primary & secondary healthcare department (P&SHD).

The caretaker government had allocated Rs 134.4 billion for the SH&MED, Rs 123.8 billion for P&SHD, Rs5.9 billion for population welfare, Rs 5.9b for water supply and sanitation etc.

The PTI government, in its first budget, also allocated Rs40 billion for nine new government hospitals in Punjab, with major focus on southern Punjab. The new hospitals were proposed in the districts including Layyah, Mianwali, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, DG Khan, Rajanpur, Lahore, Rawalpindi etc.

It proposed revamp of all those health schemes, hospitals and institutions which had been delayed during the tenure of previous government on political grounds, the budget documents say.

A new scheme to upgrade the Children Hospital, Lahore, to the first medical university for the paeds has also been proposed besides extending the scope of the Sehat Insaf Card scheme to all the 36 districts of the province by allocating Rs2 billion in financial year 2019-20.

The government also allocated funds for the upgrade/revamp of several health schemes including Rs2.5 billion for the Nishtar Hospital Multan Phase-II, Rs500 million for the Sheikh Zayed Hospital Rahim Yark Khan Phase-II, Rs1.5 billion for DG Khan Institute of Cardiology, Rs400 million for medical tower at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Rs400 million for new block for mother and child healthcare at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, Rs380 million for provision of new dialysis machines to the hospitals, Rs900 million for free dialysis treatment of poor patients, etc.

The government also allocated Rs3.5 billion for the upgrade/revamp of district headquarters and tehsil headquarters hospitals of Punjab, Rs1.5 billion for hepatitis programme and Rs12 billion for free medicines and equipment to the patients.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2019