Rs500m spent on Sehat Sahulat programme in K-P since January

Around 150,000 people visited different health facilities in the first five months

PESHAWAR: The government has spent as much as Rs500million on providing free medical assistance to the underprivileged through the Sehat Sahulat scheme in the first five months of the year.

According to officials of the health department, some 1.4million families have so far benefited from the card through which they received free of cost medical assistance at not only government but also at private health facilities across the province.

Officials said that during the past five months, around 150,000 people visited different health facilities. Of these, around 28,000 people were admitted to hospitals and sought treatment for different illnesses. A majority of these sought treatment for cardiac problems while some surgeries were also carried out under the programme.



A social health protection scheme, Sehat Sahulat had been launched in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on December 16, 2015, with financial support from the German government through the KfW Bank.

The scheme aims to improve the health of the underprivileged in the province by increasing their access to quality health services. The initiative also aims to reduce poverty since people will not have to pay for medicines through their own pockets.

The scheme is a health insurance programme which will be implemented by State Life Insurance Corporation and both public and private health care providers have been put on the panel for the provision of health care services.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2017.