Free health services to resume in KP today

PESHAWAR: As announced by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLICP) is set to resume free health services to patients in the province under the Sehat Card Plus Programme.

The previous caretaker provincial government had suspended the programme on October 19, 2023 and claimed that the province lacked the funds.

Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had announced restoration of the programme last week. He had also stated that the free health care package would begin from the first of Ramazan.

The government had paid Rs5 billion to SLICP. The insurance has deputed its staff in different health facilities to resume the free services from today, Tuesday to patients.

“After a series of meetings with the insurance company, they deputed the staff to the hospitals on their panel and are set to provide free services from 12am on Tuesday,” said Dr Riaz Tanoli, chief executive of the Sehat Card Plus programme.

Patients had been anxiously waiting for restoration of the programme, particularly those advised to them multiple surgeries, as the majority of the patients were unable to pay for their treatment.

The government was required to pay Rs17 billion to the insurance company. The company suspended its operations after the government failed to pay its premium.

The company had stopped paying arrears of the hospitals when the government was not able to clear its dues.

The government has made a commitment to pay Rs5 billion a month to the insurance company.

Sehat Card Plus is stated to be one of the major reasons for success of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the February 8 general election in KP.

To reduce misuse of Sehat Card facility, mostly in the private sector hospitals, the previous caretaker government had reduced the number of health facilities in the province.

Now there are 60 public sector hospitals and 58 private sector hospitals are in the panel of the insurance company in KP where patients can get free services.

Also, the government has revised qualifying criteria for the Sehat Card Plus, to improve standards of services.

Previously when the free healthcare service was extended to 100 percent population, the government had given the facility to health centres on political grounds that lacked basic facilities and didn’t qualify standards.

Now qualifying standards have been raised from 35 to 45.

In the past, there was no restriction on the number of beds for any health facility, but would get entitlement if it had achieved 35 percent score.

After the new criteria, 72 hospitals couldn’t qualify and were thus unable to provide services under the Sehat Card Plus programme.

There are five categories of the hospitals on the panel, with Peshawar, Abbottabad and Swat are placed in Category ‘A’ where the hospitals are required to have at least 100 beds for the patients.

Similarly, the hospitals in Charsadda, Dera Ismail Khan, Lower Dir, Malakand, Mansehra, Mardan, Nowshera, and Swabi, put in Category B, the health facilities were revised from 30 percent to 55 percent, and the hospitals will have to ensure 50 beds available for the patients.

In Bannu, Haripur, Kohat, Battagram, Buner, Shangla, which are placed in Category C, the hospitals were revised from 30 percent to 45 percent and they would need to have 25 beds.

The Category D health facilities are included Upper Dir, Hangu, Khyber, Mohmand and Bajaur tribal districts, where they were revised from 30 percent to 35 percent and they have to arrange 10 beds for the patients if they wanted to avail the Sehat Card Plus programme.

In Category E, which is given special status, most of the under developed districts were part of the group such as Chitral, Tank, Lakki Marwat, Kohistan, Torghar, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

The former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had initiated the Sehat Card Plus programme in the province in 2016 and then extended it to 100 percent population of the province in 2019-2020.

Also, to reduce misuse of Sehat Card in the private sector hospitals, the government has ceased treatment, particularly surgeries of the seven diseases in the private sector hospitals.

There are multiple issues in the programme, with complaints of the Sehat Card Plus system being misused by the surgeons by undertaking unnecessary surgical procedures to make money, but overall it has proved a blessing for the KP people as they used to get free health services for different diseases, which otherwise they would have to pay for.

Private sector hospitals better utilised the programme for their benefits.

Since 2016, the government has spent Rs76.5 billion on free treatment of three million patients, in which 60 per cent of the amount has gone to the private sector hospitals.