Health cards from next year: Dr Saad
PHOTO: File
The Interim Sindh government has decided to stop the grants and budget allocation of autonomous health facilities and launch a health insurance policy for the people of the province.
The budget of the autonomous healthcare centres will be used for health insurance. Work on extending health insurance to 70 per cent of the population from Kashmore to Karachi will start from January, said Caretaker Health Minsiter Dr Saad Niaz while talking to The Express Tribune at his office on Tuesday.
The Sindh Health Department is introducing health insurance for the first time under which national identity card will be used to get registered for health insurance card, Dr Saad Niaz said. The health card will help access medical treatment from Rs0.4 million to Rs1 million at any hospital free of cost.
The health insurance will use half the amount of Rs89 billion allocated to welfare organizations under public-private healthcare partnership programme, the minister said. Health insurance will save expenses and free up fiscal space for the Sindh government. He said that health insurance offices will be set up at all hospitals in the province.
Regarding extravagant spending of the past regimes, he said, of the four robotic surgery machines at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT), one is of animals. Moreover, he said, “I have demanded details of billions of rupees worth of spending on Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences and other hospitals. For the first time there will be forensic audit of hospitals to assess how much they spend per patient per day.”
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He said that measure would help the health ministry to be aware of the daily costs for a patient admitted to the ICU or general ward in welfare institutions, private hospitals, or government hospitals.
Addressing concerns about budget allocations, Dr Saad Niaz questioned how an SIUT, an autonomous healthcare institution, could purchase a hotel on Shahrae Faisal for Rs14 billion when its budget for the year is Rs15 billion.
He provided insights into the budget for Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and Dr KM Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, with a total of 3,800 beds receiving an annual amount of Rs16 billion. The Sindh Health Department allocates a budget of Rs89 billion to various healthcare institutions, with PPHI receiving a budget of Rs13 billion this year.
Dr Saad Niaz pointed there is 35 per cent staff shortage in Sindh’s public hospitals and identified the unfair distribution of the budget as a significant problem. He highlighted that Korangi Hospital currently has 200 beds, receiving about Rs50 million worth of medicines annually.
Regarding the MDCAT entrance test, Dr Saad Niaz said that the inquiry into the paper leak allegations has been assigned to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), however, the agency has yet to submit its findings.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 22nd, 2023.