Mounting financial woes disrupt critical healthcare in Pakistan

Amid the fluid political situation in Islamabad, the financial woes have begun affecting critical services in the country, including healthcare, with many hospitals across Pakistan having stopped providing services under the government's health card programme.

Even the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Cardiac Centre has stopped implanting stents for the last over one week as the vendor has refused to provide stents due to non-payment of bills of over Rs 100 million, reported Dawn.

Shahid Nazir, a resident of Islamabad, while talking to Dawn, said he took his 65-year-old brother-in-law, Mohamad Asghar, to PIMS Cardiac Centre, but the doctors told him that stents could not be implanted as the vendor had stopped providing them with the stents.

"Doctors told me that they had implanted a number of stents during the last few months but now the vendor has stopped providing stents and other tools for procedures as his bills have not been cleared," he said.

Under the 'Qaumi Sehat Card and Sehat Sahulat' programme, citizens can avail medical facilities, including open-heart surgeries, insertion of stents, management of cancer, neurosurgical procedures, burn management, accident management, dialysis, intensive care management, deliveries, C-section and other medical and surgical procedures up to Rs 1 million per family, per year.

The health cardholder can avail of the facility from over 600 empanelled hospitals in the country.

Talking to Dawn, the owner of Rawal General and Dental Hospital (RGDH) Islamabad, Khaqan Waheed Khawaja, said a number of private hospitals, including his facility, stopped providing treatment under the health card.

"First of all, we do not get the payments for the treatment. Secondly, the amount for each procedure is too little. The health card provides Rs 15,000 for delivery but that amount is not sufficient, which is why a number of private hospitals have stopped providing treatment under the health card facility," he said.

On the other hand, the Ministry of National Health Services spokesperson, Sajid Shah, said he had not received any complaints about the non-payment of bills, and that if citizens were facing any issue, they should contact the ministry.

Since the start of the health card facility in 2015, the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan has been dealing with the cards and last year it again won the contract for the next three years (2022 to 2025).

( With inputs from ANI )