700 patients given medicine under Ehsaas initiative
Patients are held in the hallway as St. Mary Medical Center resorts to using tents outside to handle the overflow at its 200 bed hospital during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Apple Valley, California, U.S., January 12, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS
As many as 700 patients at the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) have received free medicines under a pilot project of the Ehsaas Tarahfuz Programme.
In accordance with the programme’s mission, free provision of expensive medicine to deserving patients currently under treatment in 140 hospitals is under way across Punjab has begun.
The government has undertaken the task to cover costly medicines that are unavailable in public healthcare facilities and has also introduced a straightforward method of funding and verification.
Patients who cannot afford to buy medicines prescribed by the doctors file a request with the Ehsaas Tahafuz Programme, after which a dedicated team assesses the financial status of the candidates.
A recommendation is then sent to the relevant authorities, who instruct the hospital to purchase the requisite medicine from an approved chemist, whose bill is paid by the Ehsaas Tahafuz Programme.
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After taking formal consent from the patients, all-out efforts are made to process approved cases swiftly and to procure the required medicines as soon as possible so that there are no delays in treatments.
As per sources, HFH was chosen to initiate the pilot project, with 700 patients being provided medicines worth a collective sum of Rs15 million.
Patients at Benazir Bhutto General Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital and Rawalpindi Institute of Urology are expected to start benefiting from the Ehsaas Tahafuz Programme soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2021.