PESHAWAR: The provincial government has deleted 37 old schemes in health sector from Annual Development Programme in the current year’s budget.

The deleted schemes include one in tribal districts, 28 in other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and eight in Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP). No allocation has been made for these schemes in Annual Development Programme (ADP) of health sector in the budget for year 2024-25, according to documents.

Of the deleted schemes, 22 were not approved by any forum. These include 14 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seven AIP schemes, one AIP project and one in tribal districts. Others deleted schemes were approved by different forums.

These deleted schemes also include medical colleges in Haripur, Buner, Mansehra and Charsadda, Khyber Institute of Neuro-Sciences and Clinical Research (KINAR) Mardan, pathology laboratories at divisional level and Khyber Medical University (KMU) Institute of Health Sciences in Matta, Swat.

22 dropped out projects not approved by any forum

According to documents, the government has spent Rs509 million on nine schemes, which have been dropped from the current fiscal while.

Moreover, a single penny has not been spent so far on 28 deleted schemes. These schemes include outsourcing of supply chain of medicines and other items, feasibility study for upgradation of basic health unit (BHU) in Dubair Bala, Lower Kohistan district, to rural health centre (RHC), Odigram BHU to RHC, Deolai RHC to Category-D Hospital and Dherai and Rangmala BHUs to RHCs and construction of Beha RHC and Gowalarai RHC in Swat in addition to construction of Elum BHU in Buner and safe disposal of hospital infectious waste in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The dropped out schemes also include establishment of Category-D Hospital in Mundi Bakakhel area of Bannu; upgradation of Jowar RHC in Buner to Category-D hospital; a hospital in Maidan area of Lower Dir from Category-D to Category-C; a hospital in Khwazakhela area of Swat from Category-C to Category-B; Totalai RHC in Buner and Khweshgi RHC in Nowshera to Category-D hospital; Civil Hospital in Kalam area of Swat to Category-C; and provision of wards, OPD, gym, private rooms and office to Paraplegic Centre in Swat for comprehensive physical rehabilitation of people with stroke and closed head injuries.

The deleted schemes, which were initiated in the past without approval, also include establishment of Khyber Medical University (KMU) Institute of Health Sciences in Matta, Swat, top-up for preventive healthcare regime (hepatitis, TB, EPI, NCD, HIV etc) and provision of salaries and operational cost to the regularised projects of health sector in tribal districts for the financial year 2022-23.

Sources said that other dropped out schemes, which were not approved by any forum, included top-up for reserved fund of Sehat Card Plus for inclusion of bone marrow transplant and other diseases in the free treatment programme. They saidthat government had already resumed Sehat Card Plus (SCP) and allocated Rs37 billion for it in the current year.

They said that Bone Marrow Transplant Institute was being built for which Rs300 million was allocated. They added that there was no need for allocation of funds in the budget to carry out that expensive procedure on SCP.

Documents reveal that establishment of Category-C hospital in Jehangira area of Nowshera; upgradation of a hospital in Katlang area of Mardan from Category-D to Category-C; construction of Categoty-D hospitals in Bannu and Kohat; Burns Centre and Khyber Institute of Neuro-Sciences and Clinical Research (KINAR) at Mardan Medical Complex ; provision of free OPD medicines; upgradation of Civil Hospital in Havelian area of Abbottabad, establishment of Category-D hospital in Urmar Payan area of Peshawar; Charsadda Medical College, Mansehra Medical College, feasibility study and establishment of medical colleges under public private partnership programme in Shangla and other districts; pathology laboratories at divisional level, Medical and Dental College in Haripur and Medical College in Buner were also deleted from the ADP.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2024