Sehat Sahulat Card programme to continue: minister

LAHORE:Punjab Caretaker Health Minister Prof Dr Javed Akram participated in the 33rd important meeting of the steering committee related to Health Facilitation Programme in Punjab Health Initiative Management Company. The meeting was presided over by the caretaker Federal Minister for Health Dr Nadeem Jan.

Punjab Health Initiative Management Company CEO Dr Ali Razaq and MS Punjab Institute of Cardiology Dr Syed Mohsin Ali Shah participated in the meeting. 

Prof Dr Javed Akram, while expressing his views, said that there was room for further improvement in the health facility programme. When the caretaker setup came to power Punjab had to pay a debt of Rs200 billion in the form of health card. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, the cabinet took revolutionary steps regarding the health card. Major decisions are still being taken to address the deficiencies in the health facility programme. ‘We are not political people, so we only want the good of the people,’ he added.

Prof Dr Javed Akram said that we want to allocate the Sehat Sahulat card only to the poor of Punjab. We have also faced a negative campaign in improving the Sehat Sahulat programme. A database is being created in Punjab. He said that before our arrival, Rs260 million per day were being spent on health facility card.

Such a huge burden on the people of Punjab was unbearable, he said, adding as a result of the revolutionary measures, we reduced the expenses by 50 percent. The federal government is still obliged to give Rs7 billion to Punjab under the Health Facilitation Programme. The government is spending Rs70 billion to improve the conditions of government hospitals in Punjab.

In Punjab, 90% of cesarean operations were done instead of normal delivery to earn money. Patients had two stents inserted instead of one. The government is still bearing 60% of the expenses of the patients who get treatment on the health facility card in the private hospitals of Punjab, he added. All types of emergency, dialysis, cancer treatment and trauma treatment are still being done free-of-charge through Sahat Sahulat Card. The health facility programme will continue uninterruptedly in Punjab, he said, and added the rate of return of premium for the health facility programme by the previous government was very low. In every cabinet meeting, we have an agenda to improve the health facility programme.

Prof Javed Akram said that only licenced private hospitals were being paid under the health facility programme in Punjab. In order to improve the health care programme, we have to adopt not aggressive but thoughtful policies.

Caretaker Federal Health Minister Dr Nadeem Jan said that the Centre would fully cooperate with the Punjab government regarding the Sehat Sahulat Programme.