PESHAWAR: The Khyber Health Foundation has planned to outsource 32 under-performing public hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this month.
“We have selected eight private organisations for handing over 21 Category D hospitals, five rural health centres and three Category B and C hospitals each to them but are assessing their financial position and capacity before signing agreements with them,” Health Foundation senior director (technical) Dr Tanveer Inam told Dawn.
Since 2017, the Health Foundation, a government entity, has been outsourcing under-performing public hospitals to private organisations having health management expertise to improve patient care. It has so far contracted out 18 hospitals, mostly in merged tribal districts. The outsourced hospitals will total 50 this month, according to Dr Inam.
He said the new outsourcing process to be completed by August 24 would cover hospitals across the province, with each selected private organisation managing more than one hospital.
Official says assessing selected financial position, capacity of private organisations’
“Each organisation will be required to get hospitals both in near and remote districts under a new strategy meant to ensure that health facilities located in far-flung areas are developed,” he said.
The Health Foundation official said the organisation had actually advertised 34 hospitals for outsourcing but partner organisations didn’t apply for two of them due to their locations, so a fresh advertisement had been put up for them.
He said under that strategy, if any organisation secured the control of one hospital in Abbottabad, it would have to get another hospital in the merged tribal districts.
Dr Inam said the province had been divided into four regions where the under-performing hospitals would be contracted out to private organisations.
He said those organisations would be answerable to the relevant district administrations, district health officers and health department regarding their work.
“On the recommendations of the district administrations, we recently took strict action against the organisations not working properly,” he said.
The official said the partners, which managed hospitals on behalf of the government, would receive a budget on a quarterly basis subject to their performance review.
He said the due diligence was being carried out through a third party audit to ascertain information about the financial and technical positions of the organisations before a business agreement was made with them.
Dr Inam said that the hospitals already given away to private organisations had shown patient care improvements, so the government decided to continue with the policy.
He said under agreements, the partner organisations would be required to hire the services of specialist doctors, including physicians, surgeons, ophthalmologists, ENT and gynaecologists, and introduce investigative and emergency services.
“This outsourcing exercise was introduced because of poor facilities at hospitals and staff absenteeism, which led to the misery of patients. Also, the X-ray and pathological services were not up to the mark,” he said.
The director said for the outsourced hospitals, the selected private organisations would be responsible for immediate equipment repairs and speedy medicine provision and introduction of uninterrupted emergency services so the patients don’t suffer,” he said.
Dr Inam said the outsourcing of government hospitals had been in progress throughout the country as it had led to service improvement.
“Once this exercise is completed, the residents will feel the difference in hospital service delivery. They will receive quality healthcare in their areas and won’t be required to go to other areas for examination and treatment,” he said.
Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2026
