PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has restarted free renal transplants on Sehat Card Plus as two patients underwent procedures at public sector Institute of Kidney Diseases on Wednesday.

One patient received kidney from his sister and the other from his brother. Both the donors and recipients are doing well, according to doctors at institute of Kidney Diseases (IKD), Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar.

Officials in health department said that the last free transplant in the province was conducted on Sehat Card Plus (SCP) in August 2023 after which the procedures were stopped by caretaker government, citing lack of funds.

They said that the decision of caretaker government to stop free transplants on SCP adversely affected scores of patients, who had been on waiting list to undergo the costly procedure.

Officials say only poor people can benefit from the facility

However, last month Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur approved a summary to resume free organ transplants and cochlear implants under the free health insurance initiative, they said.

SCP chief executive officer Dr Mohammad Riaz Tanoli told Dawn that two more patients would get free transplants next week as there were a total 38 patients to be given free services. He said that government had released Rs100 million to facilitate renal, bone marrow and liver transplants patients, treatment of thalassaemia and cochlear implants.

According to him, the programme, launched in 2016, has so far benefited more than 4.3 million people at a cost of Rs105 billion. They also include 164 kidney and 64 liver transplants, with each costing Rs1.4 million and Rs5 million, respectively. He said that stopping transplants under free treatment programme left many patients high and dry.

Dr Riaz said that about 60 patients had been on the waiting list for transplants, mostly for kidney, and many of them had fulfilled requirements.

He said that most of the patients had approached health adviser Ihtisham Ali and he prevailed upon the chief minister to allocate special funds to extend cashless medical services to those patients, who could not afford expensive treatment.

“We are also going to sign agreements with hospitals for liver transplants in Islamabad as these are not available in Peshawar-based hospitals. Six patients will undergo cochlear implants at Hayatabad Medical Complex” said Dr Riaz.

Officials at health department said that resumption of free transplants was approved by chief minister for poor people and would not cover all patients like other diseases covered under SCP. However, government was likely to allocate more funds and extend the facility to all patients requiring organ transplants, they said.

They said that provincal cabinet had approved a summary regarding restarting organ transplantation two months ago, but the department had again sent a summary to chief minister to know if all the people could be included in the transplant programme or only those living below poverty line. The department had earlier proposed establishment of Rs1 billion-endowment fund to use its profit for transplanting organs to patients, they said.

Officials said that the chief minister approved a summary wherein number of patients had been mentioned which meant that the grant was for poor people. They said that each of the renal transplants would cost about Rs2 million.

They said that the government had paid Rs34 billion since last year to State Life Insurance Corporation, the executor of SCP, to cut down its liabilities and had planned to pay it Rs3 billion every month to be able to do away with the outstanding amount, which was more than Rs10 billion.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2025