‘Sehat Sahulat on target to achieving healthy nation’

Islamabad : Sehat Sahulat—Pakistan’s biggest social health protection initiative—is moving ahead to achieve the mission of a prosperous and healthy nation. The programme is providing services to 8.4 million families in 90 districts of Pakistan, and the number is expected to rise to 12.5 million families.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan shared this piece of information as chair of the National Steering Committee, which met in the Ministry of National Health Services here Thursday.

Briefing the SAPM, the Chief Executive Officer of Sehat Sahulat assured that in line with the PM’s directions, a stringent monitoring mechanism is being maintained through feedback calls from beneficiaries, which shows 97% satisfaction rate for services being provided by empaneled hospitals. He was hopeful that the scheme would bring robust improvements in treatment and access to quality healthcare services to poor and vulnerable families.

Dr. Sultan apprised the participants of the PM’s directive concerning Universal Health Coverage for all permanent residents (as registered in NADRA) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. “We will soon be starting services in AJK,” he announced. The Sehat Insaf Card covers open heart surgeries, insertion of stents, management of cancer, neurosurgical procedures, burn and accident management, dialysis, intensive care management, deliveries, C-section and other medical and surgical procedures. As many as 1,087,572 individuals have visited hospitals up till now, and 299,000 have been treated for various diseases.

The programme also provides Rs1,000 transportation costs to beneficiaries at the time of discharge from hospital and burial support of Rs. 10,000 (in case of hospital-based death). It also encompasses the facility of inter-provincial/inter-district portability for availing free of cost services from any empaneled hospital in Pakistan.

Through Sehat Insaf cards, persons with disabilities and their registered families as well as transgenders are also provided similar benefits without any poverty scoring.