PESHAWAR: Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC) has resumed free health services after assurance by the government regarding clearing its unpaid dues and revision of rates for all hospitals conducting heart-related procedures and surgeries on Sehat Card Plus.

On Saturday, the public sector 295-bed PIC stopped temporarily free treatment of patients for non-payment of its dues of Rs1.2 billion. The institute also wanted increase in rates of surgeries and other procedures in line with depreciation of the local currency which had led to upsurge in all items imported in dollar.

However, PIC resumed free services following assurance by Prof Riaz Anwar Khan, the adviser on health to caretaker chief minister, regarding resolution of the problems faced by it other empanelled hospitals.

Dr Syed Shahkar Ahmed Shah, the chief executive officer of PIC, on Wednesday informed Health Secretary Mahmood Aslam Wazir that free health services on SCP were restarted by the institute.

CM aide pledges to clear PIC dues and revise rates of heart surgeries

He said that he was grateful to health department to address the issue of pending dues with the State Life Insurance Corporation without which the institute would soon run out of disposables to continue provision of cardiac care services to its patients.

The State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) has been implementing the free treatment programme of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for which it had empanelled more than 1,100 hospitals across the country.

The insurer has been paying to the hospitals in lieu of treatment’s expenses at the end of every month but the former has been facing difficulties in paying to the latter due to low cash-flow by the government, according to sources.

They said that the government was required to pay a total of Rs21 billion to the insurance company but there were financial issues due to which its liabilities were surging. Last week, the provincial caretaker government wrote a letter to the federal government, asking it to sponsor the free treatment of the residents of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas till the transfer of the resources to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the National Finance Commission award.

Since July 2022, the provincial government has spent an amount of Rs3.72 billion on the cashless treatment of 138,342 patients of tribal district districts. The provincial government said that it had been decided that centre would finance the scheme till June 2023. Presently, SCP covers 9.7 million households for which it required Rs28 billion per year.

Sources said that the provincial government wanted to limit the services to poor on the basis of data of Benazir Income Support Programme as provision of free health services to the entire population of the province was difficult owing to financial constraints.

“A plan is this regard in being put in place under which only 46 per cent population will get total free healthcare facilities while the remaining will get services on co-payment formula, according to which certain amount will be paid by the people,” they said.

Sources said that in a meeting of Policy Council of SCP, to be held shortly, the government would ensure payment to PIC. There are other hospitals, which have been demanding increase in the rates of heart procedures for the past two years, citing the devaluation of rupees that caused increase in the cost of imported implants in the international market.

Sources said that the health adviser assured the hospitals that their rates would be revised as there had been no increase since 2019. So far, a total of 2.6 million patients in the province have received free health services costing Rs63 billion.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2023