Health sector falls prey to Punjab’s financial crunch

Budget proposal slashes allocation by Rs12.5b, includes no new development projects

LAHORE: As the rise in novel coronavirus cases shows no signs of slowing down, health facilities across the country are stretched to the limit. Government hospitals in Punjab are already short of intensive care facilities, prompting the province’s health department to send a request for immediate funding.

But Punjab’s financial crunch has severely dampened any hopes of uplift in the forthcoming provincial budget. Under the budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal, the allocation for the health sector has been slashed by as much as Rs12.5 billion.

According to the budget documents, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, Rs32.55 billion are to be set aside for the health sector in 2020-21. In contrast, Rs45 billion were allocated to the health sector in the outgoing fiscal year.

Rs14.52b allocated for health sector schemes

The documents showed that the Department of Primary and Secondary Healthcare would be allocated Rs11 billion in 2020-21, less than half of what it was allocated in the outgoing fiscal. The 2019-20 budget set aside Rs23 billion for the aforementioned department.

And although on paper the Department of Specialised Healthcare would receive the same allocation as the outgoing fiscal – Rs21.55 billion as opposed to Rs22 billion in 2019-20 – more than half of it will have to be utilised for health insurance, drastically reducing the funds available for development. If taken on its own, the development budget for the Department of Specialised Healthcare would actually be Rs9.55 billion less than the allocation for 2019-20, the documents revealed.

According to sources privy to the developments, the Punjab Planning and Development Department had originally sent Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar a summary to include the Rs12 billion health insurance allocation in the non-development budget. However, the Cabinet Committee on Finance rejected the proposal and kept the allocation part of the development budget.

The 2020-21 budget proposal includes no new health sector projects, documents showed. Although the chief minister had announced the development of a surgical tower in Jinnah Hospital Lahore and phase two of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, neither of them were included in the budget proposal.

Very meagre funds have also been set aside for the 56 schemes already initiated, the documents revealed. As such, only 20 of the 56 initiatives are likely to be completed in the upcoming fiscal year, sources suggested.

The eight medical education schemes currently in development for a cost of Rs9.2 billion will receive a combined Rs760 million this fiscal, according to the documents. Similarly two ‘mother and child’ hospital projects being developed in Murree and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital will receive just Rs200 million and Rs300 million respectively even though the total cost of each project is Rs4 billion.

Story of neglect: Another grim year for healthcare in Pakistan

When contacted for comments, Punjab Chief Minister’s Adviser on Economic Affairs Dr Salman Shah said the province’s upcoming development budget would be devised in accordance with the resources provided by the federation. “The novel coronavirus has redirected our focus on the health sector and we are trying to carry out development all over the province,” he said.

Regarding hospitals, Dr Shah said the government would build a new one in every district under a public-private partnership framework. “The first such hospital will be built in Multan with assistance from the Asian Development Bank,” he added. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2020.