Bureau Reportned the Peshawar High Court against private hospitals accusing them of denying free treatment under the provincial government’s health insurance scheme Sehat Sahulat Programme and subjecting people to needless clinical examinations.

Petitioner Umer Ayaz requested the court to declare that the hospitals’ act of not providing free services to patients under the SSP and demanding money for “privately” treating them is illegal.

He claimed that private hospitals first lured patients into admission in the name of the SSP and then refused to treat them under the insurance programme.

The petitioner requested the court to direct respondents, including the health department and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission, to initiate action against all private hospitals, which were cheating the public at large by not providing free treatment to patients despite being empanelled for the SSP.

Waziristan resident also alleges private hospitals conduct tests needlessly

The petitioner, whose lawyer is Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel, said on Feb 9, 2023, he took his 74-year-old father to the cardiology outpatient department at a leading private hospital in the province for examination.

He claimed that his father suddenly suffered a heart attack during examination, so he was admitted to the cardiac care unit under the SSP for observation.

The petitioner said his father was kept there for five days and the doctors recommended his angiography and angioplasty.

He added that as the patient was admitted under the SSP, he thought that angiography and angioplasty would be conducted under the health insurance programme, but the hospital refused to do so and demanded a hefty sum of money.

The petitioner said that he requested the hospital’s administration to abide by the government’s policy, but it declined and discharged the patient on Feb 15 without providing the required treatment.

He added that he took his father to a public sector health facility, where the required procedures were conducted free of charge under the SSP leading to permission for him to go home on Feb 17.

The petitioner claimed that the private hospital in question and others charged patients under the SSP even without offering the required treatment.

He claimed that the media had reported the misuse of the SSP by private hospitals insisting that they deducted the programme’s money in major cases without providing treatment to visitors.

The petitioner said that he came to know that some private hospitals in the province had been collecting copies of the computerised national identity cards from patients and deducting money for their treatment without their knowledge.

He added that some hospitals admitted patients for minor surgeries and kept them admitted for many days to grab the maximum money under the health insurance programme.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2023