PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is set to outsource 72 under-performing hospitals to private organisations to improve patient care.

Health Foundation, a public sector entity created under Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Foundation Act, identified hospitals few months ago for outsourcing to private organisations. The process was delayed owing to a stay order granted by court against it.

“However, the court has now allowed the government to execute the plan due to which the outsourcing process has been started,” official sources told this scribe.

Health Foundation has already contracted out 24 hospitals, mostly in tribal districts, since 2017. It has been tasked by the government to speed up the programme under Good Governance Roadmap initiative to improve healthcare services in the hospitals where the services are not provided to patients to a desired level.

The process will be completed in two phases in June and July

These hospitals will be outsourced in two phases in June and July. Health Foundation (HF) has sought proposals for aspiring private organisations in this regard. The hospitals are being outsourced under public-private partnership.

“It will be for the first time since the launch of public-private partnership (PPP) initiative that the government will outsource hospitals in bulk,” officials said. They added that the hospitals, which were being outsourced, had been identified by a panel headed by director-general health services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They said that those hospitals had been bracketed as ‘under-performing’ owing to absenteeism of staff and delay in repairs of equipment due to which patients suffered. Under the PPP programme, the partner organisations will be responsible to run the hospitals and provide services to patients without any interruption and make repairs at their own.

Officials said that under the government’s system, hospitals had to wait for months for petty repairs as requests were processed in a long time. “As far as presence of staff is concerned, these organisations will also ensure that health workers are deployed as per requirement of the facilities,” they said.

These health facilities also include Category-D hospitals where partners will recruit physicians, general surgeons, gynaecologists, ENT, eye and other specialists along with putting in place operation theatre, blood bank, pharmacy stores, emergency departments and labour rooms etc to provide services to people.

The administration of these hospitals will remain with the government as the respective deputy commissioners, district health officers and other district level officers will inspect these facilities. The representatives of HF from Peshawar will also visit the hospitals to see if services being provided to patients are in accordance with standard reached with partners in memorandum of understanding.

The hospitals will continue to receive government’s budget like other hospitals on quarterly basis but that will be released upon the recommendation of the relevant committees.

“Each of the organisations will be given cluster of hospitals located in the same geographical location to ensure better operations,” said officials. The hospitals already outsourced are located in tribal districts but now hospitals in Abbottabad, Swabi, Mardan, Nowshera, Shangla, Dir, Karak, Peshawar, Lakki Marwat, Tank, Mansehra, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Haripur will also contracted out to private organisations.

“The government has also softened mechanism for release of funds to the organisations as they will now get the money every three months subject to performance report,” said officials.

They said that as per agreements, the organisations would not be allowed to delay salaries of their staff and continue to provide unhindered services to patients. They said that organisations for running the hospitals were being selected through strict bidding process. Only those organisations would be given contracts that had experience in managing health facilities with solid economic background so that they could continue operations of the outsourced hospitals.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2026