PESHAWAR: The health department has extended the entitlement of the registered residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to free treatment at empanelled hospitals across the country except Balochistan.

Officials told Dawn that the patients registered with the Social Health Protection Initiative (SHPI) could avail themselves of cashless care in Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Sindh.

They said the government’s nationwide free healthcare facility was available to the people registered in other parts of the country as well.

The officials said all 7.4 million such families in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could visit any of the designated hospitals in the country, while the registered residents from Lahore division in Punjab could visit any of the 157 public and private sector hospitals selected by the KP government.

Official says no transplant for people with livers damaged by liquor

They said the Balochistan hospitals empanelled by the government for the free healthcare programme were an exception to the facility.

“We have extended the programme to entire population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who are now entitled to free health services anywhere in 624 empanelled hospitals. People only need to check the status of their identity cards to be able to take benefit from the initiative,” SHPI chief executive officer Dr Mohammad Riaz Tanoli told Dawn.

He said though Sindh wasn’t part of the programme, more than 10 hospitals in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur offered cashless health services to the registered people, while the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan were also eligible to the same at empanelled hospitals.

Dr Tanoli said the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had already been getting free services in Punjab hospitals.

He said the government launched the Sehat Sahulat Programme in Lahore recently.

“The State Life Insurance Corporation, which is implementing the programme on behalf of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK governments, has empanelled all hospitals in collaboration with the relevant authorities for the entitlement of the registered people to treatment anywhere. Each province is paying insurance amount to the SLIC,” he said.

The SHPI chief said a total of 830,433 people had been admitted since the launch of the programme in 2016 at the cost of Rs20.174 billion but the hospitalisations had jumped since the extension of its coverage to the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Since July 1, 2021, we have provided indoor treatment to 3, 55,268 patients in both public and private sector hospitals,” he said.

Dr Tanoli said more and more hospitals were being selected to increase the programme’s coverage and 28 hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were in the process of selection.

He also said the performance of empanelled hospitals was under way and that six of them were recently warned over poor quality of services.

“On Jan 1, we started free liver transplant and selected a patient for surgery in Lahore but the doctors didn’t carry out that surgery due to medical complications. The patient will undergo surgery after he is declared fit,” he said.

The SHPI chief said a single liver transplant cost Rs5.05 million and at least 200 such procedures would be carried every year.

“For liver transplant, our team will examine the economic status of the patients want to avail services, before treatment. The people can get free treatment for other illnesses regardless of their financial status but for liver transplant, we have to select only poor patients,” he said.

Dr Tanoli also said the people, whose livers were damaged by the use of liquor, wouldn’t be entitled to free transplant.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2022