PESHAWAR: Provincial Health Minister Syed Qasim Shah has said that efforts are afoot to make Sehat Card Plus programme more transparent and ensure that patients receive free quality treatment at the empanelled hospitals.

Flanked by Dr Mohammad Riaz Tanoli, the chief executive of the programme, he told a press conference here on Tuesday that the current challenges including over-billing and irregularities were being addressed by restricting certain operational procedures to government hospitals.

He said that free healthcare services were resumed today (Tuesday) in all the designated hospitals. He said that free healthcare initiative was launched in 2015 and initially covered four districts of the province. By 2020, the scheme was extended to entire province, with an annual expenditure of Rs18 billion.

The minister said that 1,800 different medical treatments were available free of cost in 118 public and private hospitals. He said that Rs10 million was already spent on admission of 700 patients by noon on Tuesday.

He announced reopening of counters for SCP in hospitals. He said that government allocated an additional Rs5 billion to executer of the programme.

Mr Shah said that discontinuation of the programme by the caretaker government adversely affected the economically disadvantaged residents of the province. He said that that it was not a temporary but a long-term project.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2024