ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar has said that the Prime Minister’s National Health Program is fast reaching more and more families below the poverty line.
While addressing the 15th National Steering Committee Meeting of Prime Minister’s National Health Program in Islamabad, the minister said that to date 17,000 patients have been admitted to 81 hospitals empanelled under the program. She said that thousands of enrolled patients have been successfully treated in the best public and private hospitals.
Sharing figures, the minister said that 104 open heart surgeries have been performed, 119 treated for different forms of cancer, 643 cataract eye surgeries, 1,289 Caesarian Sections performed, 1,080 normal deliveries, 796 appendix operations, 658 operated for Gall stones, 866 hernia operations, 830 hysterectomy, 275 angiographies, 217 angioplasties and 469 dialysis. She said that so far Rs 200 million payment has been made to the empanelled hospitals for treatment of the enrolled patients.
Saira Afzal Tarar said that under the instructions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, there was a strong emphasis on monitoring sharing that under the third party evaluation by NADRA there was more than 92 percent patient satisfaction from those treated under the Program. She said that stringent monitoring was being done through Federal, Provincial and district level Monitoring Units.
The minister said under directions of the prime minister, the program is being launched in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The minister for national health services said that the federal government will pay the entire Premium for Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa enrolled families with no expense of the provincial governments. She said that 45 additional districts are being added to the existing 15 districts taking the total to 60 districts in the 4 Provinces, Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and FATA.
In the revised PC-1 an amount of 8.1 billion has been allocated for the program, the minister said that the work is underway for the next phase of the program which will cover the entire country providing the service to all families living below the poverty line.
The meeting was also attended by Secretary (NHSR&C), Director General (NHSR&C), representative from PM Office, representatives from provincial health departments, ministry of Finance, Law and Planning, representatives from State Life Insurance Corporation, NADRA and partner organization.
The meeting was convened to take necessary decisions in the light of prime minister’s directives regarding launching of the Prime Minister’s National Health Program both for secondary and priority care in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 100% federal funding and expansion of the program all of the Pakistan to provide the secondary and priority health coverage to the poor families whose daily income is below Rs 200.
Initially, Prime Minister’s National Health Program was launched in 23 districts of Pakistan which are now being expanded to 60 districts covering 11 districts of FATA, 10 districts of AJK, 7 districts of Gilgit Baltistan, 11 districts of Punjab, 12 districts of Baluchistan, 4 districts of Sindh and KPK each and ICT with the beneficiary families of 3 million.
In the meeting, it was also decided to notify an expert committee in order to initiate a pilot program in 10 districts of Pakistan on Family Practice Program and to Pilot OPD Services for diseases including Heart failure, Blood pressure, Asthma, Diabetes, Breast Cancer, COPD and Dyslipidemia.
