PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health Taimur Saleem Jhagra said here on Thursday that provincial government was providing free healthcare facilities to 9.6 million families of the province under the Sehat Sahulat Programme.

Addressing a press conference, he said that the health insurance system was in line with the vision of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan. He said that publication of an article regarding the programme in prestigious medical journal Lancet was also a manifestation of its importance.

He said that provincial government would spend Rs35 billion on the free treatment of people in the current year.

The minister said that even the United State, where healthcare was on the agenda of every election, lacked such a system. He said that PTI and provincial cabinet should be credited for launching the programme.

Jhagra says health insurance scheme gets international laurels

He said that the health insurance scheme was preventing many people of the province from going beneath the poverty line. He said that launching the health insurance scheme was a political decision, which was getting international laurels.

Mr Jhagra said that that the provincial government spent Rs19 billion under the programme on the free treatment of people. “Patients from KP are eligible to free treatment at 1,043 hospitals across the country,” he added.

He said that the ratio of free treatment on health card at public sector hospitals of the province went up to 33 per cent. He said that about 52 per cent women were getting free treatment on health card. “On average, Rs 62,000 is spent per patient while more than 1.2 million people have been benefited from this scheme,” he added.

The minister said that federal government excluded the people of merged districts from free treatment scheme at the behest of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif. However, the provincial government was provided free health facilities to them from its own resources, he said.

He said that more than 300,000 heart surgeries were also performed free of cost under the scheme.

Mr Jhagra said that currently nine hospitals were being operated under public-private partnership and the number would be increased to 20 soon. He said that government nearly doubled health budget in three years to remove shortage of doctors and other medical staff in hospitals and other medical facilities.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2022