“The provincial government also ran the massive Sehat ka Insaf immunisation campaign against nine diseases in which 15,000 volunteers participated,” said Haq. PHOTO: FILE
A modest increase of 10.6% has been made in the budget allocated for the provincial health department by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government for the coming fiscal year.
Minister for Finance Sirajul Haq presented the budget for 2014-2015 in the assembly on Saturday, announcing Rs25.23 billion for the health sector, a more than 10% increase from last year’s Rs22.8 billion.
Highlighting the government’s efforts in the health sector undertaken last year, Haq said during 2013-2014 they created 1,394 posts in various health institutes to provide better facilities to the people. These posts included 279 in newly-established Gajju Khan Medical College in Swabi and 245 posts at the Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital in Swat.
Around 978 more posts are expected to be created in the health sector in 2014-2015.
“The provincial government also ran the massive Sehat ka Insaf immunisation campaign against nine diseases in which 15,000 volunteers participated,” said Haq.
The finance minister added in 2013-2014 the government had allocated Rs8 billion for 101 new projects in the sector, of which it had successfully completed 24 projects.
“During the fiscal year 2014-2015, the government plans to allocate Rs8 billion for 67 ongoing and 26 new projects,” said Haq.
He added a monitoring cell would also be established in hospitals to point out the lack of facilities and monitor the staff’s performance.
The government’s earlier promise of establishing numerous insulin banks in the province were also in the budget agenda and received an allocation of Rs25 million, while Rs100 million has been set aside to initiate mobile medical services in remote areas.
Higher education for nurses also made it to the annual budget and the finance minister announced Rs500 million for initiating BSc and MSc programmes for nurses in the province.
In the next fiscal year, Rs1 billion will once again be spent to provide emergency services facilities in all hospitals of Peshawar and district headquarters hospitals of K-P.
Furthermore, with the support of the World Bank, health programmes worth Rs1.5 billion will be initiated in Kohistan, Battagram, Torghar, Buner, Lower Dir and DI Khan.
The budget also includes allocations for provincial and district health centres as well as regular grants-in-aid to various health institutes to the tune of Rs7.57 billion, which is 6% more than last year’s allocation of Rs7.14 billion.
Grants-in-aid have also been proposed for: Endowment Fund Rs100 million, provision of emergency drugs for poor patients Rs725 million, creation of posts in the project/schemes due for completion during the next fiscal year Rs200 million, Red Crescent Society Rs2.5 million, LRH’s Cardiology Unit Rs40 million, Fatimid Foundation Rs5 million and Paraplegic Centre Hayatabad Rs60 million.
Moreover, the Health Regulatory Authority will get Rs20 million in grant-in-aid, Frontier Foundation Rs20 million, Khyber Medical University Peshawar Rs61 million, free dialysis services Rs60 million, free angiography/angioplasty surgery Rs100 million, Electrophysiology Department at Hayatabad Medical Complex Rs20 million, Hamza Foundation Peshawar Rs5 million and Polio Eradication Programme Rs270 million.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2014.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ