K-P hospitals stop free treatment on Sehat Card

Decision comes after government fails to pay monthly instalment to insurance company

PESAHWAR:

Due to the non-payment of dues to the insurance company by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government, the company has asked all hospitals to stop admitting the new patients on Sehat Card.

This has created a lot many problems for the general public in addition to inviting widespread criticism on social media.

Official sources told The Express Tribune that the health department of K-P has not paid Rs14 billion to the State Life Insurance and it failed to pay its due of March.

As a result the insurance company has written a letter to all private and public sector hospitals to stop treatment of patients on health card.

“The letter says that the ban will be effective from April 20 till the further notification by the company as a result all the health desks created for the purpose at each hospital have also been closed,” said an official.

“Government had to pay Rs1.5 billion per month to the insurance company but the health department failed to release the amount for the month of March,” he added.

On the other hand, the government has taken the stance that it has been faced with a severe financial crisis as a result it has failed to pay its monthly instalment to the insurance company.

“Government recently released Rs2 billion so that the treatment on patients could not affect,” said another official, adding that government is seriously considering excluding rich people from the health card facility.

Government has also taken notice of substandard treatment facilities at some hospitals and a committee has also been formed to investigate it.

Due to delay in the release of funds under various federal transfers by the federal government and nonpayment of net hydel profit, the provincial government has been facing severe financial constraints.

Currently, the federal government owes billions of rupees to the K-P province which has resulted in an adverse impact on the ongoing development and welfare activities in the province, especially merged areas.

This was revealed in a meeting in January with the Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan in the chair.

The meeting discussed and reviewed various matters related to current economic condition and financial situation with special focus on the budgeted transfers withheld by the federal government.

Briefing about the financial constraints due to non-transfer of the budgeted shares by the federation and other related matters, the meeting was informed that the federal government has allocated a grant of only Rs60 billion for the newly merged districts for fiscal year 2022-23 against a minimum current budget requirement of Rs89.5 billion for salary and non-salary expenditures.

Similarly, Rs50 billion have been allocated for development projects in the merged districts, out of which only Rs5.50 billion have been released during the first six months of the year.

Moreover, the share of K-P fixed in the National Finance Commission Award is not being released, while Rs61.89 billion are also due with the federal government on account of net hydel profit (NHP).

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2023.