PESHAWAR: Health department has sought more funds from government to provide cochlear implants to about 1,000 deaf and dumb children under Sehat Card Plus scheme.

Officials at Health Secretariat told Dawn that government was providing Rs4 billion every month for free treatment of patients under Sehat Card Plus scheme that was given to empanelled hospitals by State Life Insurance Corporation, the executor of the cashless treatment programme. “About Rs300 million goes to free transplants, including Rs150 million to renal transplants and as many amount to cochlear implants,” they added.

However, they said, the number of children requiring cochlear implants had reached about 1,000 due to 100 per cent success rate of the procedure. “Children are brought by parents mostly after one year when they realise that they cannot speak and hear,” they said.

Officials said that so far, 240 children had received free cochlear implants, mostly in Hayatabad Medical Complex and two private hospitals.

Over 200 have already availed the facility under SCP

They said they had sent a request to government to double the amount for cochlear implants to end the backlog as majority of children on waiting list were between three to four years, the ideal age for the procedure.

They said that the procedure of cochlear implant was conducted before five years of age for good results. “If government approves the additional money, those on waiting lists will get services within a few months.

The free health insurance programme, launched in 2016, has benefitted more than five million people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at a cost of Rs150 billion,” they added.

Most of the beneficiaries of cashless diagnostic and treatment services include cardiac, gynaecology, women and children, cancer, medical, surgical, ENT, eye, orthopaedic, urology and general patients.

However, government started free kidney transplants in 2022, followed by liver transplant, bone marrow and cochlear implants to facilitate patients as most people couldn’t afford the high fee charged by hospitals for these procedures.

The most expensive procedure is liver transplant, which costs Rs6.5 million. So far 131 persons have been financially supported to undergo the procedure since 2022. Also, 12 patients have undergone bone marrow transplants. The number of people benefitting from the programme to get renal transplants is 292. A single procedure costs Rs1.4 million.

Officials said that Institute of Kidney Diseases Hayatabad (IKD) was among the public sector facilities where the procedure of renal transplant was conducted.

They said that IKD recently strengthened its transplant programme by recruiting more transplant surgeons and expansion of infrastructure.

“The service is also available in private hospitals but government wants to benefit the IKD, the public facility. IKD has also been requesting government to help it in establishing diagnostic facilities required by patients before undergoing renal transplants,” they said.

Officials said that the cost of cochlear implant was Rs2.5 million but government wanted to help children with hearing problem at the early age so that they could start education and other activities like normal children.

Doctors involved in carrying out the procedure said that most of the beneficiaries were from poor families and couldn’t even think of paying charges but SCP proved a blessing for them.

They said that under the programme, each family of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was eligible to receive treatment worth Rs1 million annually free of cost. For transplants, patients get amount from the reserved funds because of high cost of the procedure.

More than 700 hospitals have been empanelled for the programme throughout the country where 10.6 million families having Khyber Pakhtunkhwa identity cards can avail free medical services.

The number of total transplants and implants conducted under the programme is 610, according to officials.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2026