PESHAWAR: More than 190,000 residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have undergone free treatment for different eye diseases on Sehat Card Plus.

About 9,000 of these patients have availed free medical services in other provinces of the country.

The government spent a total of Rs3.054 billion on the treatment of 193,130 patients of whom 184,254 availed medical services in the hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while 8,876 underwent different eye procedures and surgeries outside the province.

The patients, who got free medical services under Sehat Card Plus (SCP) scheme in hospitals outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, included 7,527 in Punjab, 679 in Islamabad, 610 in Sindh, 38 in Balochistan, 16 in Gilgit-Baltistan and six in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

9,000 of them avail medical services in other provinces

According to data of health department, the government spent Rs2.897 billion on free treatment of patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and more than Rs200 million in hospitals located in other provinces and regions. The programme offers cashless treatment to the residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who possess national identity cards anywhere in empanelled hospitals in Pakistan.

The main beneficiaries of the programme are 150,619 patients having cataract issue costing more than Rs2 billion to the government, according to data. The programme has been covering 74 procedures and surgeries related to ophthalmological problems faced by patients.

“All the treatments are procedures are available in the province’s hospitals where patients are hospitalised after confirming their record from Nadra,” officials told this scribe.

They said that few years ago government started enlisting hospitals for free health insurance scheme in other provinces and regions to facilitate the residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in getting free medical services there.

There are 700 empanelled hospitals, including 169 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other provinces, where eligible people can seek free medical services. Before nationwide empanelment of hospitals, the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa working in other provinces had to travel to the province to get healthcare that caused them hardships as well as they had to pay travel cost from their pockets.

The hospitals are empanelled by State Life Insurance Corporation, the executor of SCP, throughout the country. There are 478 empanelled hospitals in Punjab, 85 in Balochistan, 28 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 21 in Sindh and 17 each in Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Since February 2016, a total of 4,978,491 patients have received free diagnostic and treatment support at a cost of Rs135 billion under the programme. The scheme covers the entire population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, consisting of 10,779,575 families having 34,542,525 individuals.

In 2025, 73,919 people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sought free treatment in other provinces and regions under SCP for which the government paid a total of Rs3.452 billion. Hospitals in Punjab received Rs1.982 billion from the KP government for treating 40,772 patients under the programme.

The data showed that hospitals in federal capital earned Rs1.123 billion by providing treatment to 23,467 people under the SCP programme. In Sindh, 8,132 patients underwent treatment, with the KP government paying Rs295 billion to relevant hospitals.

The provincial government spent Rs44 million on the treatment of its 1,080 residents in Balochistan, Rs4 million on 175 residents in Gilgit-Baltistan and Rs4 million on 93 residents in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Each family is entitled to consume Rs1 million per year for treatment from the programme while there are reserved funds from which organ transplants and implants are conducted.

So far, 732 patients have undergone free organ transplants and cochlear implants under SCP. The cost of liver transplant is Rs6.5 million, bone marrow transplant Rs8.50 million, renal transplant Rs1.4 million and cochlear implant over Rs2 million under the programme.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2026