PESHAWAR: The National Database and Registration Authority has agreed to share live data about new families and residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with health department to benefit the patients, who can’t avail free treatment services on Sehat Card Plus owing to lack of their record.

“Younger people, who don’t have Form B, are not eligible for free treatment despite being residents of KP as the programme facilitates only the people registered with Nadra. The authority has been providing update on province’s population on quarterly basis. Now it has agreed to share information with health department about new entries the same day,” Dr Mohammad Riaz Tanoli, the chief executive of the free treatment programme, told Dawn.

He said that Nadra also managed the website of the programme with a feedback system since the government began covering the entire 9.7 million families of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and merged districts.

He said that patients were called to seek their opinions after they underwent treatment in hospitals on SCP. He added that their opinions were communicated to relevant officials, who addressed the issues.

Only thouse registered with the authority can avail the services

Dr Riaz said that so far, 98 per cent patients expressed satisfaction over the services they received in the hospitals empanelled for the programme.

He added that few complaints lodged by patients were resolved immediately.

He said that in every quarter, about 120,000 new persons were registered with Nadra. He said that their names were available on SCP’s portal.

“Now, the portal will have new data on daily basis that would benefit the patients, who have either to wait for four months to be reflected in data or get private services,” he added.

Dr Riaz said that in the past an estimated 450 new families were registered with Nadra per day but the data about them was available with SCP after end of the quarter. “The new agreement will enable the people to get services the same day,” he added.

He said that under the programme, people with serious heart diseases and maternity issues were exempted from the registration as they could get free treatment services even if they were not registered with the programme. He said that serous patients were hospitalised and Nadra compiled the record subsequently. “However, cold cases are not facilitated till their registration on our Nadra-run portal,” he added.

He said that SCP should be informed about new weddings, separations and change in family status to upload the information on its portals. “This will ensure prompt services to the people, who have to wait for four months to be able to get services under the programme,” he added.

Dr Riaz said that patients’ load had risen since the extension of the programme to the whole population of the province. He said that coordination with Nadra and State Life Insurance Corporation was being strengthened to treat patients in quality hospitals. He added that SLIC and Nadra played important role in implementation of the programme.

He said that about two million patients had been treated free of cost in 1100 empanelled hospitals under the programme. He said that hospitals were selected after assessment and they were given contracts for the programme in line with their infrastructure.

“It is a continuous process. We select hospitals that provide treatment to patients on Sehat Card Plus but their inspections continue. Agreements with the hospitals violating contracts and not providing quality services or indulging in other illegal practices are terminated and new health facilities are selected,” said Dr Riaz.

He said that there would be no compromise on quality of services as the law passed by the government made it binding upon it to provide universal health coverage to the whole population of the province in line with the guidelines of World Health Organisation.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2023