PESHAWAR: Medical teaching institutions have stopped admitting patients on Sehat Card Plus owing to non-payment to them by State Life Insurance Corporation and lack of their regular budgets by government.

Sources said that non-payment of dues to hospitals led to stoppage of treatment on SCP, limiting it for routine patients only, and non-payment of salaries to employees of medical teaching institutions (MTIs).

They said that some of the MTIs were yet to pay salaries to their employees for the month of September as their quarterly budget was not released by government.

Sources said that most of the 10 MTIs in the province including Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) were facing severe shortage of funds, prompting them to suspend services on SCP.

Health secretary says MTIs will get funds shortly

The State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC), the implementer of the free treatment initiative in the province, is not able to pay outstanding dues to hospitals as government is not paying it the amount. SLIC has empanelled hospitals where patients undergo cashless treatment on SCP. SLIC makes payment to these hospitals. However, SLIC has been struggling to get its Rs20 unpaid amount from the government and distribute the same among the empanelled hospitals.

Sources said that last week, in a meeting held with caretaker chief minister in the chair, the insurer was told that government would pay Rs3 billion to it but the commitment was not honoured.

“The insurance company has to pay Rs2 billion to LRH, Rs1.24 billion to PIC, Rs650 million HMC and Rs500 million to KTH in lieu of SCP as all these institutes have stopped providing free treatment services to patients,” they said.

These hospitals have run out of medicines and disposable items to provide the same to patients admitted on SCP. LRH requires Rs390 million to pay monthly salaries to its 3,500 staffers.

LRH, which receives most of the patients than any MTI in the province, is also facing the daunting challenge to purchase medicines and other items for patients. The number of elective surgeries has also been restricted so that the emergency patients are not affected.

LRH spokesman Mohammad Asim told Dawn that they faced financial crisis but the administration was trying hard to continue all the services as previously. “We have to be prepared for any mass casualties that can happen anytime,” he added.

The dean of Khyber Medical College/KTH, Prof Mahmud Aurangzeb, told Dawn that they paid salaries to staff from their own receipts. He said that they were waiting for the unpaid amount from SLIC. “We have made arrangements to provide care to patients, especially those in need of emergency services, but we need the amount to continue services on SCP,” he added.

Situation in other MTIs is also not different. In Mardan, Swabi, Swat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Abbottabad, non-payment of dues by SLIC and regular budget by government have caused the MTIs to limit services and suspend treatment on SCP.

Since the installation of caretaker government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, SCP has suffered a great deal because the insurer is not getting its dues in a timely manner. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which pioneered the programme, continued to increase coverage to 100 per cent population in November 2020 and spent Rs62 billion on the treatment of more than 24 million patients.

Caretakers have deleted several diseases from the SCP list and restricted the free services to 65 per cent people of the province but the services continue to get suspended and restored due to financial issues.

Health Secretary Mahmood Aslam Wazir, when contacted, said that they had written to finance department regarding release of funds to MTIs. “Some of the MTIs have received funds while others would get the same the soonest,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2023