PESHAWAR: Health department has decided to enhance rates of about 80 surgeries and procedures to ensure that patients seeking treatment on Sehat Card Plus (SCP) get prompt services at empanelled hospitals, according to officials.

They said that rates of those procedures were fixed in 2020 after which inflation was increased and doctors were not willing to facilitate SCP patients properly. They said that patients had to wait for long time to undergo those procedures.

They said that doctors in empanelled hospitals could not refuse patients but they used delaying tactics because SCP rates for those operations were very low, considering the depreciation of rupee.

Therefore, Policy Board in its previous meeting asked relevant officials to conduct market survey regarding the cost of those procedures so that rates could be increased and patients were enabled to receive rapid medical services on SCP, said officials.

Officials tasked to conduct market survey for the purpose

They said that those procedures included very common orthopaedic operations frequently conducted at hospitals due to accidents as well as general surgeries and urogenital procedures for which rates had not been revised during the last five years.

Officials said that findings of market survey would be presented when the new cabinet was announced in the province and revision of rates would be approved. However, it was unclear as to how much hike would be approved in the rates, they said. They added that as per Policy Board’s recommendation, it was necessary to enhance the rates so that patients were saved from suffering.

“If a patient gets longer date for operation on SCP due to the issue of lower rate, he or she does not wait for it but opts for private surgery. Therefore, Policy Board decided to increase the rates of surgeons for the same procedures,” said officials.

Last year, the government had revised the rates for cardiac patients by 30 per cent after complaints of delaying surgeries at empanelled hospitals, they said. They said that cardiologists had argued that the rates of implants had gone up and the money given to them was in accordance with the 2020 agreement when the prices of gas and electricity were far cheaper than now.

“Similarly, orthopaedics, general surgeons and urologists have been sending letters to health department for upward revision of rates and the department has agreed,” said officials.

The programme, launched by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in 2016 from coverage of few families in four districts, was extended to the whole population of the province in phase-wised manners. Currently, 11 million families possessing identity cards of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are eligible to free treatment across the country under the programme. About 1,000 hospitals have been empanelled by SCP where people of the province can avail cashless treatment services in any province of Pakistan.

About 158 hospitals have been empanelled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Of these, 71 are public and 87 are private hospitals, selected through proper assessment. So far, 4.7 million patients have availed free treatment on SCP, costing Rs123 billion to the provincial government.

The programme also offers free transplant to patients. So far, 2,35 patients have undergone free renal transplants, 80 liver and 71 cochlear transplant, costing Rs1.9 million, Rs6.2 million and Rs2.3 million per case, respectively, to the provincial government.

The scheme covers most of the diseases such as cardiology, medical, surgical, cancer, mother and child, ENT and eye, etc. The government has been spending about Rs3 billion on the programme every month. State Life Insurance Corporation is implementing the programme on behalf of government.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2025