PESHAWAR: Revenue of the public sector hospitals from Social Health Protection Initiative has increased following enforcement of the formula under which the staff gets share in the money received from the admitted patients on Sehat Card Plus.

In 2018-19, the government hospitals got 11 per cent of the total amount spent on the treatment of the patients in the province under the progarmme. The private hospitals received 89 per cent of the amount while in 2019-20 the revenue of the state-owned health institutions from the programme rose to 27 per cent. The government hospitals have been able to increase their share in the funds to 32 per cent this year so far.

Officials said that increase in the share of government health facilities was result of the implementation of a notification issued in January 2020 to enforce ‘fund retention and utilisation/distribution formula’ for the amount received through the programme.

They said that the formula remained non- implemented or partially enforced due to which the patients on Sehat Card didn’t get treatment readily in government hospitals as opposed to private hospitals that already treated patients on payment and generated more revenue through the programme.

Officials say ‘fund utilisation formula’ helped improve patient care

Officials said that health facilities were required to spend 25 per cent funds to improve patients’ care, carry out minor repairs for maintenance of the respective facility; allocate 30 per cent to doctors and 20 per cent for consumables; give 15 per cent to nursing and paramedical staff; and keep 10 per cent for administrative cost. A nine-member committee was constituted at each hospital with medical superintendent as its head for the purpose but the formula remained partially implemented, they added.

“The government had shown concerns over poor performance of the hospitals and wanted to improve services and earn more from the programme. Now, most of the hospitals are utilising funds under the formula owing to which staff has started getting share in the money. Staffers want to get more revenue from the patients, therefore, they are now ready to admit patients,” a senior surgeon at one of the medical teaching institutions told Dawn.

He said that majority of the private hospitals were owned by an individual, who was the main beneficiary of the revenue whereas there were committees of several officials in government facilities that were supposed to take decisions with less financial benefits due to which the government persuaded them to enforce the formula and follow the model of Hayatabad Medical Complex and Peshawar Institute of Cardiology. The two public sector hospitals generated most of the revenue from the programme.

SHPI chief executive officer Dr Mohammad Riaz Tanoli told Dawn that a total of 925,927 patients had been admitted to hospitals since launch of the programme and Rs22.589 billion was spent on their treatment. The private hospitals admitted 623,267 patients while 302,660 were admitted to government health facilities, he said.

He said that private hospitals earned Rs15.813 billion and state-owned health facilities got Rs6.776 billion through the programme. He said that Health Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra, the chairman of steering committee of SHPI, wanted to enhance revenue of government hospitals to 50 per cent at the end of the current fiscal year.

Dr Riaz said that the province’s entire 7.4 million families were entitled to free treatment services in more than 700 hospitals including 185 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The government wants to enable the public health facilities to get more amount from SHPI and further upgrade their services. We are in close contact with public and private hospitals to ensure that people get standard services. Public sector hospitals, especially medical teaching institutions are well-equipped with highly qualified doctors and support staff so they are capable of providing prompt and highly specialised health services to patients,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2022