PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has resumed outsourcing public hospitals to private organisations after a gap of four years.

On Saturday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Foundation signed agreements with three organisations for running five hospitals in line with the government’s plan to improve patient care in under-performing healthcare outlets through public-private partnership.

The health department has been contracting out under-performing hospitals to non-governmental organisations through Health Foundation to improve patient care.

HF managing director Dr Khizar Hayat, who led the signing agreements, told Dawn that the newly-contracted out hospitals were located in Darazinda area of Dera Ismail Khan district, Mamad Gat area in Mohmand district, Mola Khan Sarai area in South Waziristan district, Upper Giljo in Orakzai district and Dogar area in Kurram district. The hospitals outsourced in the province until now total 24, according to him.

Officials claims third party audit records ‘visible improvement’ in patient care at outsourced hospitals

Dr Hayat said that those hospitals were supposed to be outsourced four years ago but the process got delayed due to some technical issues that had been removed.

He said that under the PPP Act, the government had been contracting out hospitals that were identified to be underperforming due to absenteeism by staff and lack of services. Under the agreements, the partner organisations are bound to introduce specialised services and ensure presence of staff, operating theatres, pharmacy and emergency services.

“Most hospitals outsourced so far have shown good results where patient flow has increased,” he said.

The HF managing director said the partner organisations to which the five hospitals had been contracted out included MERF and PIMS & JHC. He added that there were many issues, mainly delayed payments to the partner organisations, which impacted patient care as well as timely payment of salaries to staff members.

Dr Hayat, however, said the cash flow had been streamlined, leading to due payments to the organisations within the stipulated 20 days.

“All NGOs running hospitals on behalf of the government get a budget on a quarterly basis subject to review of their performance by committees,” he said.

The official said as per agreement, partner originations weren’t allowed to hold protests and disrupt services.

He said to prevent protests against staff at outsourced hospitals, a decision had been made to enhance fines on partner organisations to improve patient care.

“We have been receiving complaints from the respective district health officers regarding the poor performance of some outsourced hospitals, so we’re going to increase penalties to force the respective organisations to work hard and improve patient care,” he said.

Dr Hayat said presently, the partner organisations were liable to pay a 10pc penalty of their total budget for poor performance and the foundation was considering increasing the amount of fine.

He said that the government had planned to outsource 72 more hospitals and even completed all formalities for it, but the process had been put on hold in light of the decision of the Peshawar High Court.

“Now, we are close to contracting out 34 more facilities for which all processes have been completed. We’re waiting for the court’s orders,” he said.

The HF managing director said the programme was constantly monitored by the health minister as well as chief and health secretaries, while organisations were required to install necessary equipment and carry out repairs, ensure the availability of medical supplies and hire gynecologists, general surgeons, physicians, ENT specialists, ophthalmologists, and labour room and blood bank experts.

According to him, a third party audit has recorded visible improvement in patient care at outsourced hospitals, so the government is eager to contract out more facilities where services aren’t up to the mark.

Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Foundation (KPHF) has signed a tripartite agreement to outsource the management of key health facilities in Chitral to the Aga Khan Health Service-Pakistan (AKHS-P),our Chitral correspondent adds.

Under the agreement, the management of the tehsil headquarters hospital Garam Chashma and rural health centres in Mastuj and Shagram has been formally handed over to AKHS-P.

The documents were signed by KPHF managing director Dr Khizer Hayat, district health officers Dr Farman Wali of Upper Chitral and Dr Naseem of Lower Chitral and AKHS-P General Manager for Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan Merajuddin.

Merajuddin said that the collaboration aimed to leverage AKHS-P’s clinical and administrative expertise to ensure smooth provision of quality medical services to residents during harsh winters when the access to Garam Chashma, Mastuj and Shagram areas mostly remained suspended.

“Residents can now expect a consistent supply of essential medicines, modern diagnostic equipment and the presence of qualified medical officers and specialists during that period,” he said.

The GM appreciated the efforts of deputy speaker of provincial assembly Surya Bibi, who is the local MPA, to make the agreement possible by removing official hurdles.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2026