PESHAWAR: Public sector medical teaching institutions and district headquarters hospitals continue to face shortage of funds owing to inability of State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) to clear their dues in lieu of the treatment of patients on Sehat Card Plus.

The government has not cleared the dues of SLIC, which implements the free treatment scheme on behalf of government, so it is unable to make payments to MTIs and other public sector hospitals, according to sources.

They said that SLIC paid pending amount of private empanelled hospitals bit by bit and expected the government to release more amount to it to be paid to public hospitals.

They said that the firm received Rs2 billion from government last week. However, the amount is too little to clear the unpaid sum of the empanelled public sector hospitals.

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“All of the 57 empanelled hospitals are getting paid by SLIC on regular basis but not with the same frequency. However, still they make profit. The issue of non-payment of dues is mainly with public sector hospitals as the insurance company has stopped clearing their claims till the government clears its pendency,” sources told this scribe.

They said that 54 empanelled hospitals, including MTIs, were not being paid as SLIC wanted the government to pay it more amount so that the firm could clear their dues as well. The government has to pay Rs25 billion to the insurance firm.

“The income from SCP was a big cushion for the hospitals where not only patients received free services but the employees, including consultants, drew sizeable share but now all the MTIs have stopped free treatment on SCP,” they said.

Lady Reading Hospital, the biggest health facility of the province, has been the worst-affected as SLIC has not paid its Rs2 billion outstanding amount. As a result, the employees of LRH are not getting salaries and the patients are without medicines.

LRH spokesperson Mohammad Asim told Dawn that they did not get any green signal about payment of salaries yet as the Board of Governors and administration of the hospital were in regular contact with the officials concerned to resolve the issue.

When asked about the availability of medicines, he said that free treatment on SCP was not possible because they were already in debt and could not provide free medicines to all the patients.

“We receive about 2,000 emergency cases on daily basis. They get free medicines and other facilities but providing free drugs for elective cases is not possible,” said Mr Asim.

Senior doctors at LRH said that many consultants were leaving the hospital and some had already left including the lone paediatric cardiac surgeon and head of department because of funds issue. They said that many others, especially surgeons, were weighing options to quit jobs.

“Few very important wards of the hospital are going to collapse,” they said.

Situation in other public sector MTIs is also not different. Peshawar Institute of Cardiology is waiting to receive Rs1.4 billion from SLIC. It is likely to face exodus of consultants due to non-payment of the amount. “PIC has 29 cardiac consultants and most of them have come from abroad after its establishment in 2020,” said sources.

SLIC has not paid Rs600 million to Hayatabad Medical Complex and Rs500m to Khyber Teaching Hospitals, forcing patients to purchase drugs from bazaar as they try to ensure free medication of critically-ill and injured patients from their meagre resources.

Many of these hospitals are paying salaries to their employees from their own receipts owing to lack funding by the government coupled with non-payment of their dues.

Bacha Khan Medical Complex, Swabi, and Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan, have also stopped services on SCP as both the health facilities have more than Rs350 million each to SLIC. Other MTIs and district headquarters hospitals face the same issues but SLIC will pay them when government releases enough amount to it.

Health Secretary Mahmood Aslam Wazir, when contacted, said that they were trying to provide funds to MTIs and other hospitals for smooth healthcare of patients.

“We are constantly in touch with finance department to get funds for MTIs at the earliest,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2023