PESHAWAR: Health department has launched awareness campaign to register eligible patients for free OPD services for which the Government of Germany has allocated Rs2 billion.

Officials told this scribe that the initiative would also enable deserving patients to get free hospitalisation under Sehat Card Plus (SCP) scheme. They said that patients visiting OPD for free medical services would be sent to empanelled hospitals if they required surgeries or admission in hospitals for any other disease.

About 41 million in-patients have availed free treatment on SCP costing Rs108 billion to the government so far but the new scheme called Jwandoon card covers outdoor patients bracketed as poor under Benazir Income Support Programme. Of the specified amount, 10 per cent or Rs200 million has been allocated by provincial government making the overall budget of the programme Rs2.20 billion under which Rs120,000 families would receive free OPD services in four designated districts.

As opposed to SCP on which 10.6 million are entitled to receive cashless diagnostic and treatment services regardless of their financial status, the new initiative targets only poor population of Malakand, Mardan, Chitral and Kohat. The government recently increased budget for SCP from Rs35 billion to Rs41 billion, said officials.

Germany has allocated Rs2 billion for the initiative

They said that the programme was launched in Mardan and other districts would be included in it six months apart. They said that registration was started in Mardan where the scheme was pioneered last week.

Officials said that they had launched awareness drive in Mardan to ensure that deserving patients availed those essential health services. They said that the programme was first of its kind in the history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It has been launched through State Life Insurance Corporation with oversight from social health protection initiative.

“The programme offers outpatient consultations, diagnostic services and essential medicines to patients,” said officials.

In Mardan alone, more than 50,000 low-income families are expected to benefit from the programme with over 60 public and private health facilities being enlisted to provide these services to them.

Officials said that people in target districts could check their eligibility for the Jwandoon OPD Card by sending their Computerised National Identity Card number to 9930 via SMS and the eligible ones would be able to avail free treatment at the nearest registered healthcare facility.

The initiative is meant to enhance the existing in-patient department (IPD) scheme by introducing an OPD scheme targeting the same group of 120,000 families in target districts.

The overall goal of the programme is to incrementally achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by enhancing access to quality healthcare services for the poorest population of the province. Its key objectives include reducing out-of-pocket expenditure of patients, improving quality of outpatient services and strengthening stewardship role of health department.

In each union council, basic health units (BHUs) and rural health centres (RHCs) will be empanelled to provide treatment services to people along with already empanelled private healthcare facilities for in-patient care, ensuring accessible healthcare for beneficiaries. Initially a capitation fee amounting to Rs2,000 per individual per year should be paid to the facility. The programme can be extended to other districts and coverage of more population in future just like SCP, which was started from four districts and later extended to the entire province in a phased manner.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025