Staff Reporter Peshawar
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has placed over 400 Government and private hospitals in the panel list of the landmark Sehat Card plus programme to provide free treatment to patients to the tune of Rs one million per family per year. These hospitals were placed in all seven administrative divisions including Hazara, Malakand, Peshawar, Bannu, DI Khan, Kohat and Mardan, officials in KP Health Department told on Sunday.
The hospitals were selected on basis of better infrastructure, equipment, human resources and quality healthcare facilities following inauguration of Sehat Plus Card in DI Khan district by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on February 1 last. Khyber Pakthunkhwa has become the first province of Pakistan where free healthcare services have been extended to the entire population.
In the third and final phase of initiation of the services in Kohat, Hangu, Karak, Lakki Marwat, DI Khan, Tank and Bannu districts by the Chief Minister, the process of extending free medical, surgical and diagnostic services up to Rs one million per year to each family of over 40 million inhabitants under free universal health coverage has successfully been completed in KP. In DI Khan, more than 300,000 poor families would be directly benefited from this programme.
Prior to inauguration of Sehat Card plus Programme, the project was launched in Malakand, Hazara and Peshawar zones where people had already been started availing free treatment facilities under the universal health coverage. KP Government has allocated Rs18 billion in budget 2020-21 to run the landmark program successfully and ensure uninterrupted medical services to the masses.
All people having computerized national identity card (CNIC) with KP’s permanent address are entitled for free medical, surgical and diagnostic facilities besides others relevant services at any of these paneled hospitals under the facility. “Perhaps nobody can feel the pain which I had gone through when I was diagnosed with cancer. I had spent my entire hard-earned money on treatment of deadly disease. It gave me a sigh of relief to know that now I am entitled for free treatment under PTI Government Health Card Plus programme,” said Khurshid Khan, a survivor of cancer, resident of Nowshera while talking to media.
He said provision of free treatment up to Rs one million for a cancer patient was a huge amount being extended by the PTI government for which people like me was great full to the Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khurshid Khan said Prime Minister Imran Khan had won the hearts and minds of people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after extended this program to the entire population of the province.
