KARACHI: The government has allocated an amount of Rs206.98bn for health services — covering primary, secondary and tertiary care facilities as well as preventive interventions for communicable and non-communicable diseases — in the 2022-23 budget.

The total health sector allocation stands at Rs230.30bn – which constitutes over 19pc of the total outlay of the budget -- whereas the allocation for health services is 14pc higher in comparison to Rs181.22bn earmarked for the financial year 2021-22.

The allocation includes grant-in-aid and single-line grants amounting to Rs66.151bn to different institutes, trusts and non-governmental organisations including Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jillani Institute of Medical Sciences, Gambat, Kidney Center, Karachi, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Institute of Trauma, Karachi.

50pc increase in grant for Gambat institute

The allocation for health sector schemes is Rs23.33 billion (6.5pc of the total size). For the next financial year, the government has created around 3,653 posts; a significant number of these have been created in education and health departments.

The existing exemption on health insurance services is proposed to be continued further for a period of one year, till June 30, 2023.

Success against Covid-19

For the last two years, a major chunk of the provincial budget had been directed to combat Covid-19. In 2021-22, the government spent an amount of Rs25.738bn on coronaviurs-related activities, which included cold chain management and operation of tertiary care hospitals, intensive care units, high dependency units and isolation centre at the Expo Centre.

“Sindh carried the burden of 38pc of total reported positive cases (in the country). We fought a war against coronavirus and successfully brought it down to an infection rate of 0.6pc from a whopping 45pc during the fifth wave,” Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah noted in his budget speech.

First medical city of Sindh

An important highlight of the health budget is a 50pc increase in grant for Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jillani Institute of Medical Sciences in Gambat.

The government has allocated Rs6bn this financial year against last year’s Rs4bn. Apart from this, the institute would get a one-time grant amounting to Rs2.139bn for procurement of high-tech equipment for cancer patients.

The government has already announced plans to make the institute Sindh’s first ‘medical city’. “It will consist of a cluster of hospitals of multiple specialties along with allied state-of-the-art health facilities as well as the education centre catering to all needs of the modern day health and medicine treatment and education,” the chief minister said.

Currently, he said, it was the only public sector hospital where several high-tech surgeries were being done free of cost. So far, 608 liver transplants, 135 kidney transplants, 565 open heart surgeries, 104 cochlear implants and 30 bone marrow transplants have been done free of cost.

This financial year, the government also plans to launch “Sindh Human Capital Project — Sindh 1000 Days’ Plus Programme”, which will be financed jointly by the provincial government and World Bank with financial assistance to the tune of over $400 million.

The programme aims to make significant positive change in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health related indicators in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2022