Mitigating suffering

Advanced healthcare, once considered to be a privilege of the affluent, is now becoming common for all segments of society through the pro-public and innovative health initiatives of the Federal Government. With a successful experience in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Centre decided to make the Sehat Card a nation-wide project – extending it to different cities of the Punjab province.

Free of cost medical treatment and medication through Sehat Card was a dream aligned with the manifesto of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) led government. After covering four divisions of the Punjab province during its first phase, the programme has now been expanded to central Punjab, including the Faisalabad division. Prime Minister Imran Khan had himself distributed health cards among the people of Faisalabad to facilitate approximately 14.179 million persons from 2.21 million households.

“This is our flagship programme and after its success in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI government is extending it to Punjab. It will allow every family to get free treatment up to Rs1 million at the hospitals of their own choice,” said National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Chairman Faiz Ullah Kamoka.

Kamoka, who also hails from Faisalabad, maintained that its successful operation in KP had inspired other provinces as well. “Prime Minister Imran Khan is himself taking keen interest in this scheme,” he said, while adding that, “this programme has also been widely appreciated by the masses since its module is very innovative as the Centre will directly pay the health charges to the concerned hospital instead of paying amount to the concerned family,” Kamoka said.

The Sehat Card would cover a large spectrum of diseases from simple to complicated ones, facilitating every individual across the division, especially those from lower-income backgrounds, to avail health facility at the hospitals of their choice. Initially major surgeries were included in the scheme but now surgeries of other complicated diseases have also been covered in this scheme.

In the past successive governments had exploited this basic need for political mileage. However, the present government bore the torch to provide health coverage to every individual. “There are 7.875 million people in Faisalabad district, 2.744 million in Jhang, 2.19 million in Toba Tek Singh and 1.37 million people in Chiniot district who will be helped by this health card,” said a local administration spokesperson. He further stated that the Faisalabad district has six tehsils with a rural population of 4113,582 individuals belonging to 631,434 families which desperately need healthcare, but, did not have the means to afford it before the programme was launched.

“This is an appreciable initiative of the government,” said Faisalabad District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Bilal Ahmad. “This ambitious scheme will provide free treatment, particularly to the lower-middle class individuals, who have been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.” According to Dr Ahmad, “since many of the poor could not avail  proper treatment for their diseases due to paucity of funds, a health card would now enable them to access healthcare facilities at hospitals of their choice making their lives much easier.”

The government has inducted a number of hospitals including Abu Bakar Clinic, Madinah Teaching Hospital, Abwa Hospital and Research Centre, Aslam Memorial Zakariyya Hospital, Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology, Fazal Elahi Chattha Hospital, Faisalabad International Hospital, Independent University Hospital, Khair-un-Nisa Hospital, Maqsooda Zia Hospital, Mian Muhammad Trust Hospital, Mujahid Hospital, PINUM Cancer Hospital, Rathoor Hospital and Sughra Siddique Hospital, among others, to accept the Sehat Card and provide quality treatment to patients.

“Initiation of Health Cards in Punjab is another step of the PTI government towards the fulfillment of the promises made to the people in its manifesto,” said Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Chaudhary Lateef Nazar. “This scheme would not only provide the best possible health facilities to people but also incentivise investors to set up quality hospitals, particularly in the far-flung rural areas,” he said. The MPA further lauded the PM stating that, “[launching the programme] was a major leap towards transforming Pakistan into a welfare state envisioned by PM Imran Khan.”

Meanwhile, the card holders have also appreciated this initiative as they believe their decades’ old dream to be coming true.“I belong to a poor family and was worried about accessing treatment after suffering from a bone fracture in my left leg but, luckily I was awarded the Sehat Card during first phase in Punjab,” said Muhammad Asghar, an Okara resident district, who had come to Faisalabad for treatment at Mujahid hospital. He added that this facility enabled him to get free treatment from qualified orthopedic surgeons, something he never would have been able to access on his own. Similarly, another profiteer of the card, Riffat Bibi hailing from Sangla Hill, also praised the government for this initiative stating that, “when the PM launched this health scheme, I immediately got health cards that helped me to get free treatment for my sick son.”

The PTI government hopes to expand the cards across urban and rural Punjab, and eventually to more provinces nationwide.