PESHAWAR: The health department will strengthen surveillance and monitoring system to make Sehat Card Plus programme more transparent and provide quality treatment to patients, according to officials.

“A meeting of Policy Board of Sehat Card Plus (SCP) programme will be held on Wednesday to discuss measures for developing mechanism and streamlining the performance of the empanelled hospitals,” they said.

They said that media reports quoting caretaker chief minister’s health adviser Dr Abid Jameel that the SCP programme was riddled with massive corruption and sub-standard treatment was meted out to patients was totally incorrect.

The health department clarified that there were some hospitals accused of providing sub-standard services to patients but it didn’t mean that all the empanelled facilities were providing low quality care and medicines to patients.

Dr Abid Jameel, when contacted, said that more than two million patients had benefitted from SCP so far “but we are starting inquiries into the allegations against some facilities to find out gaps and identify corrupt practices at the level of service provider to plug the loopholes and save public money.”

He pledged that the programme would be continued, further expanded, improved and made sustainable for the future. He said that a new mechanism was being evolved to check the standard of services at the hospitals and stop unwanted practices.

Policy Board of SCP programme to discuss streamlining of empanelled hospitals

“Stringent criteria for empanelment of healthcare establishments will be developed in a meeting of Policy Board wherein procurement of medicines will also be discussed to improve the programme and reduce the cost to the public exchequer,” said Dr Abid.

He said that they would include the representatives of Healthcare Commission and SCP besides physicians, surgeons and gynaecologists to inspect the hospitals and see if they had the desired infrastructure.

He said that there were complaints of sub-standard drugs being given to patients under SCP. He added that a mechanism would be put in place under which doctors would select drugs from a recommended list of quality medicines.

“At present about 200 hospitals are extending services to the patients under SCP and the ones not pursuing good medical practices will face disciplinary action,” he said.

Dr Abid said that some of the hospitals didn’t follow the World Health Organisation’s criteria of keeping five feet distance between two beds due to which patients were exposed to cross infection.

He said that several complaints were lodged against the end-users that included forcing patients to pay for treatment and shortage of the required infrastructure, doctors, equipment, blood banks, operation theatres and laboratories etc. “This in no way implicates policymakers or directors in corrupt practices,” he added.

Dr Abid said that there were also complaints against the empanelled hospitals of charging patients by 25 per cent. “It is illegal because it is a cashless treatment programme,” he said. He added that the hospitals found guilty of taking money from patients would face action for violating agreement.

The department had already removed 48 hospitals for illegal practices. We also plan to devise a policy and purchase medicines in bulk through technical people and save amount that could be diverted to treatment of more people.

Dr Abid said that most of health facilities were providing quality treatment services to patients enrolled under the programme and the ones, which failed to ensure patient safety and caused unnecessary losses to public exchequer, would not be spared.

“In future, empanelment will be done through a committee to ensure that good facilities are selected for effective care of patients,” he added.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2023