PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has announced to include free coverage of OPD services and treatment of more diseases in Sehat Card Plus scheme.

       Addressing a ceremony here on Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of Sehat Card Plus scheme, he said that treatment of critical diseases like cancer and kidney transplant had already been covered under the programme.

       According to an official statement, the chief minister termed Sehat Card Plus scheme a great gift of the provincial government and said that the flagship project was appreciated at national and international levels. He added that other provinces were also launching health cards, following the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

       Mahmood Khan terms Sehat Card Plus project important step towards welfare state

       He said that Sehat Card Plus was an important step towards accomplishment of prime minister’s vision regarding establishment of a welfare state. He said that the scheme was not only a programme of free treatment but it was also a complete package of social protection to reduce poverty and raise the standard of the life of common man.

       Mr Khan said that the scheme was started at limited scale during the last tenure of PTI provincial government. He said that in 2018 when incumbent government came into power, he decided to extend the facility to 100 per cent population of the province.

       He said that the difficult task of providing free health facilities to 100 per cent population of the province was successfully accomplished with the cooperation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

       The chief minister, on the occasion, formally launched inclusion of liver transplant in Sehat Card Plus scheme and provision of Sehat cards to all the households of the province.

       He said that the purpose of launching the scheme was to reassure the people that in case of any ailment they would have the facility to get free treatment up to Rs1 million per household per annum.

       The participants of the ceremony were informed that during the last one year, 650,000 people received free treatment under the scheme with cumulative cost of Rs11.5 billion.

       A total of 953,000 people have received free treatment since launching of the scheme. More than 5,000 cardiac patients have been treated so far under the scheme with a total cost of Rs5 billion.

       Similarly, 64 kidney transplants and 100,000 kidney dialyses have also been carried out whereas now the facility of free liver transplant would also be available for patients.

       Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2022