ISLAMABAD: The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has decided to facilitate 58,688 families in Faisalabad under the Waseela-i-Sehat Programme by April 2015. And from May 2015 onwards, the programme will begin reaching out to 16 other districts.

Under the programme, the cost of transportation and post-discharge medicines for all patients admitted to mother and childcare hospitals will be handed over to the beneficiaries.

It is pertinent to mention that BISP was initiated in October 2008, with an initial allocation of Rs34 billion. It aimed to financially support people living below poverty line.

Waseela-i-Sehat was initiated in 2010, as part of graduation strategy and social assistance programme to protect the most vulnerable segments of the society from economic consequences of potential health shocks.

The health insurance scheme was launched in 2012 in district Faisalabad, on pilot basis, covering full hospitalisation, pregnancy, daycare treatment and diagnostic tests to a maximum limit of Rs25,000 per family annually.

Director-General Waseela-i-Sehat Rizwan Malik said 404,551 people of district Faisalabad will be facilitated through the programme.

“Facility of treatments will be given at as many as eight hospitals of the city and because of cashless system there will be no chance of corruption. It will bring financial sustainability,” he said.

“A high proportion of the programme has been allocated to the maternity services, due to which mothers of newborns will be facilitated,” he said.

Mr Rizwan said the BISP had been planning to introduce the programme in 16 districts of Pakistan during the next phase, starting from May 2015.

BISP also ensures that its beneficiaries are treated properly in the empanelled hospitals under the scheme. A complaint redressal system has been put in place by the programme and the entire process is monitored minutely.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2014