Health sector to receive Rs73 billion this year

Asad Umar says this represents 50% jump on last year’s allocation

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Tuesday announced that the government would spend Rs73.9 billion on the health sector in different schemes during the current fiscal year.

He said the government had allocated Rs21.72 billion to 20 ongoing and 40 new projects in the health sector under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2021-22.

In a high-level policy review meeting, the federal minister extensively reviewed the new and ongoing health schemes that had received federal funding in the current and previous fiscal years here, according to a press release.

This was a 50 per cent increase from the budget allocated to the ministry last year, he said.

In addition, Rs2 billion had been allocated to health projects under the Finance Division, Rs4.4 billion to health projects under Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan while Rs2.8 billion to health projects under Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.  The allocations amount to a total of Rs30.9 billion committed for improved health services for the people of Pakistan, he said.

The minister said that these health schemes also included ground-breaking 16 new health facilities and two up-gradation projects, completion and inauguration of three new health facilities and 10 upgraded facilities in the current year and completion of 12 new and nine upgraded health facilities in 2023.

Giving a further rundown on the schemes, the minister said the allocations would also cover the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for Gynaecology and Obstetrics in Rawalpindi, a state-of-the-art emergency ward at PIMS Islamabad, up-gradation of neurology and nephrology departments of PIMS.

While presenting the PSDP portfolio for heath, Dr Shabnum Sarfraz highlighted that within these projects, Rs3.6 billion was earmarked for five provincial projects.

She gave a detailed overview of the additional allocations of Rs37.96 billion made in FY 2021-2022 to the provinces under the Covid-19 Responsive Umbrella PC1 of the Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives on a cost-sharing basis. She said funds aimed at strengthening the infectious disease management and critical care facilities in the tehsil and district headquarter hospitals in the four provinces and two regions of the country.

“Funding was also provided for improving the public health surveillance system across the country.”

Under this umbrella scheme, she added, Rs5.02 billion of federal funding had been allocated to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) which would support the up-gradation of 19 DHQs across 19 districts.  An allocation of Rs10.41 billion would support 16 DHQs, 23 THQs, four teaching hospitals across 21 districts of Sindh.

Punjab received Rs19.59 billion worth of federal funds which would upgrade six DHQs and eight THQs across 11 districts. Rs2.94 billion was allocated to Balochistan for strengthening 32 hospitals.

Rs1.6 billion were received by Gilgit Baltistan which would support the up-gradation of 10 DHQs in 10 districts, and Rs1.1 billion to Azad Jammu and Kashmir would support the up-gradation of 10 DHQs, 10 THQs, and four teaching hospitals in 10 districts.

Additional funding of Rs4.87 billion had been committed by the federal government exclusively for the less developed districts of South Balochistan.

Overall, a total of 152 health facilities would be upgraded across Pakistan to ensure last-mile quality health service delivery to people with updated diagnostics, infectious and critical care management capabilities.

Under the Covid-19 responsive federal funding, provincial governments would also be strengthening their early warning, disease surveillance and response systems, establishing public health laboratory networks, bolstering the preparedness and capacities of the international points of entry