District hospitals low on spending agenda

While the Punjab government has increased the health sector development budget for 2025-26 by 131 per cent as compared to the outgoing financial year, the non-development expenses outweigh the allocation and the tehsil and district hospitals appear to have been accorded a low priority.

"We appreciate the Punjab government over the allocation of funds for various pending hospital construction projects, including the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and Bahwalnagr Hospital.

However, there are minimum funds for the district and tehsil headquarters hospitals that are the most important for the local residents," said Punjab Young Doctors Association Chairman Dr Salman Haseeb Chairman while commenting on the budget.

He also opposed the policy of outsourcing government hospitals.

As per the budget documents, the government has allocated Rs181 billion as development budget for the health sector for the year 2025-26 and Rs450 billion for non-developmental expenditures.

The budget estimates for the foreign programme loans have been set at Rs47.896 billion. The provincial government is likely to receive budgetary support loans from international development partners for the National Health Support, Access to Clean Energy Investment, Punjab Family Planning, Punjab Green Development, Punjab Resource Improvement and Digital Effectiveness (PRIDE), Punjab Affordable Housing, Punjab Clean Air and Resilient STEM Secondary Education programmes. The flagship healthcare initiatives include a medical city, free medicines and new centres for cancer and cardiac care.

The establishment of Nawaz Sharif Medical District in Lahore has been proposed, for which Rs109 billion has been allocated in 2025-26 for land acquisition. Under the project, Rs54 billion has been allocated for Children Hospital-II and Institute of Genetic Blood Diseases, Institute of Surgical Orthopedic and Medical Rehabilitation, Centre of Excellence for Nursing Education, Specialised Medical Hospital and College, a 1,000-bed Cardiac Institute, Medical University and state-of-the-art diagnostic lab.

For the construction of medical colleges in Narowal, Okara and Layyah, an amount of Rs16 billion has been allocated. For the establishment of a children's hospital in Rawalpindi, Rs8.5 billion has been set aside. For a teaching hospital in Sialkot, Rs7 billion has been allocated.

An allocation of Rs12.5 billion has been proposed for the Maryam Nawaz Community Health Services Programme through outsourced community health inspectors, for the establishment of centres of excellence for nursing education in Multan and Rawalpindi with ADB loan, Rs15 billion has been set aside. Moreover, for the establishment of burns units in Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan, Rs5 billion has been allocated.

Budgetary allocations have also been made for revamping of the remaining BHUs across Punjab, dispensaries and mother and child health centres along with the provision of equipment, furniture and fixtures.

Under the Chief Minister's Special Initiative for Dialysis, Rs8.6 billion has been earmarked, while for provision of free medicines in public sector hospitals, Rs79.5 billion has been set aside.

With an amount of Rs25 billion, a Universal Health programme will be launched for provision of cheap and quality treatment facilities. For setting up cath labs at the district level, Rs3 billion has been allocated in the budget.

General Cadre Doctors Association President Dr Masood Sheikh said the government had allocated ample budget for providing free medicines to patients but the amount should utilised transparently. He said many posts were vacant in the sector and the development expenditure needed to be hiked.