As government has spent Rs 10.5 billion on the health card free treatment of 423,525 patients in the province, at least Rs 8 billion have been earned by private hospitals in KP under Sehat Sahulat Programme (SSP).
According to sources, the private hospitals have earned Rs 8 billion as compared to Rs 2 billion earned by public sector health facilities from the income generated through free treatment of patients under SSP. Private hospitals got 78 percent of the amount and 22 percent was the share of government-owned health facilities.
Read more: Under Sehat Sahulat Programme over 66,000 get free treatment in four months
Sources further said that the main cause behind less income is the lack of share of staff in the income of SSP in government hospitals. “The health department is concerned over poor performance of the government hospitals and is going to discuss the issue in the next meeting of the Steering Committee on SSP,” they added.
They also said that health department wanted to allow the public sector hospitals to attract the patients and generate income for its own institutions. “Efforts to create a competitive environment among public and private hospitals have proved futile and the former continue to draw lion’s share from the programme,” they added.
Moreover, 173 KP hospitals have been put on the health card panel which includes 46 government health facilities and 127 private ones, selection made after thorough analysis by experts.
However, SSP was first established in 2015 in partnership with KfW, a German bank, in four districts. It covered 3 percent population of the KP and was extended to 51 percent population in 2016. Later it was extended to 69 percent in 2017.
Whereas in 2020, it was extended to entire province. Now, 7.2 million families are being facilitated of the province.
They are allowed to have free treatment in about 500 hospitals across the country.
