PESHAWAR: The caretaker government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has sought funds from Accelerated Implementation Programme to clear outstanding amount of State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) to continue the free treatment scheme.

The provincial government has written a letter to federal government for provision of Rs8 billion from Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP) to pay liabilities of SLIC, which is implementing the free health initiative on behalf of the government.

The government has to pay SLIC a total of Rs20 billion but it has paid Rs2 billion to it in September and a similar amount was released a day before.

However, this amount is not enough for restarting full-fledged services on Sehat Card Plus (SCP) programme. Last month, the firm restricted free health services and allowed treatment of medical emergencies only on SCP. It asked other patients to contact public sector hospitals for routine illnesses and surgeries.

Rs20 billion dues to executor of the programme

“To continue free treatment services, the provincial government has prepared a new PC-I and requested federal government to release it the required amount from AIP funds to clear the dues of the insurer and restart the programme for all patients,” sources told this scribe.

They said that federal government had started AIP programme to financially assist the newly-merged districts after the passage of 18th Amendment and also set aside amount for healthcare of the residents of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Sources said that federal government had been providing free health services to people under the centre-run Sehat Sahulat Programme that was stopped in July 2022 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was asked to absorb its beneficiaries in SCP.

On February 21, 2022, former prime minister Imran approved a summary to shift SSP to SCP along with its staff, assets and liabilities, they said. It has been agreed that centre will sponsor free treatment services for the residents of former Fata till July 2023.

Sources said that health department had been providing free treatment services to residents of former Fata since July 2022. More than Rs5 billion had been spent on their free treatment, they said. “The federal government has been asked to transfer Rs8 billion to the province so that services to dwellers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and newly-merged districts get under way,” they added.

Officials of health department are hopeful to get the requested amount from AIP because provincial government has been facing severe financial crisis and can’t afford more funds to be issued to SLIC.

The provincial government is trying to bring down the cost of the programme. It has restricted seven procedures on SCP to public sector hospitals because some private hospitals were infamous for operating on patients unnecessarily to get income from the programme, according to sources.

Last month, authorities removed 71 private hospitals from the SCP’s panel for their failure to meet the new criteria developed by the government. The new criterion has been developed to retain only those hospitals, which offer high quality services.

The decision to de-list hospitals is also meant to bring down cost of the programme to Rs1.5 billion from Rs3 billion a month. With these steps, the number of patients has dropped by more than half and the October’s bill of the programme was Rs1.3 billion.

However, SLIC demands an amount of Rs10 billion in one go and payment of Rs2 billion in installments so that it can resume all services.

The province’s main hospitals have stopped services on SCP for non-payment by SLIC, which is required to pay Rs2 billion to Lady Reading Hospital, Rs1.4 billion to Peshawar Institute of Cardiology, Rs600 million to Hayatabad Medical Complex and Rs500 million to Khyber Teaching Hospital.

These hospitals are under economic stress, which has led to cutting down elective services in order to maintain their emergency support to critically-ill and injured people. They are eagerly awaiting funds from SLIC.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2023