ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister National Health Programme (PMNHP) has decided to introduce an SMS service for the beneficiaries of the programme due to which they will get information about balance in their cards.

Moreover, during the current month the programme will be extended in two districts of Balochistan, Lasbela and Loralai. The PMNHP has been waiting to get a date from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the inauguration of the programme in Skardu.

In Kotli the programme will be inaugurated after elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

It is worth mentioning here that the prime minister launched the programme on Dec 31 last year for Islamabad and described it as the first step towards making Pakistan a welfare state. The scheme will be expanded to all parts of Punjab, Balochistan, AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). People of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) will not benefit from the initiative because their governments have declined to become part of the federal government programme in which they also have to contribute. KP has been introducing its own health programme.

A family gets Rs50,000 for secondary care treatment which begins as soon as a patient is hospitalised. It includes all kinds of diseases, including maternity. Moreover, each family can get treatment of Rs250,000 under the category of priority diseases which includes cancer, accident, burn injuries, diabetic complications, heart bypass and infections. So each family can get treatment of Rs300,000 per year and that amount can be doubled in case of emergency and it will be contributed by Pakistan Baitul Mal.

The scheme is already launched in Islamabad, Muzaffarabad and Quetta due to which so far over 210,000 families have been selected for enrolment and around 4,100 patients have received free treatment from the private and public sector hospitals of those cities. It is aimed that as many as 3.1 million families (18 million people), from 23 districts of Pakistan, will be enrolled by the end of the current year.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) requesting anonymity said that beneficiaries had a number of questions in their mind that if they have sufficient balance in their cards or if the hospitals have deducted the correct amount from the cards, after treatment.

“So we were considering for the last many months that a system should be devised for the benefit of beneficiaries to give them information about the available balance in the cards. The SMS service will address the problem,” he said.

“Moreover, we are ready to inaugurate the schemes in Skardu and Kotli. In Kotli, despite complete arrangements, the scheme cannot be launched because elections are being held there and the matter can be politicised. However, we have been waiting for the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to inaugurate the programme in Skardu because he has shown his consent to inaugurate it,” he said.

Secretary of the Ministry of NHS Ayub Sheikh while talking to Dawn said that though on every card name of the beneficiary is written and he has no need to understand the card but to avoid any confusion new SMS service will be started within a few weeks.

“Because of SMS service patients will get an SMS as soon as the amount will be deducted from their cards. People will know that how much amount was deducted for the treatment. So far 4,100 persons have used the service and 80 per cent out of them have showed satisfaction,” he said.

“So far the utilisation is 7.66 per cent of the enrolled persons and according to international standards the ratio of utilisation is 7.5 per cent. It shows that in Pakistan more people have been using the service as compared to international standards,” he said.

“Currently, after treatment, officials of National Database and Registration Authority ask the beneficiaries about their satisfaction through phone call but soon a message in the voice of PM Nawaz Sharif will be recorded and it will be used to ask the patients about their satisfaction. People will have to press a button to say that they were satisfied with service or not,” he said.

“The scheme will provide poor families, whose daily income is less than $2 (Rs200), with free of cost access to secondary as well as priority diseases treatment, through insurance paid by the federal and provincial governments,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2016