Nawaz Sharif inaugurates National Health Programme, provides free healthcare to needy

Federal Ministers Ishaq Dar, Khurram Dastagir, Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar, Minister of State for Interior Baleeghur Rehman, Minister for CADD Dr. Tariq Fazal and Maryam Nawaz Sharif were present in the event.

He said each patient suffering from a fatal disease will be provided additional money from Pakistan Baitul Maal if the treatment expenditure exceeded Rs300,000 in a year. The programme will be later expanded to 23 districts of the country.

“It is not a matter of politics…, and I wish those (two) provinces (Sindh and KPK) which are not part of the programme also joint the scheme”, Nawaz Sharif said while speaking at the programme’s launching ceremony. “Prevention measures including upgrading early warning systems to deal with the new climate variability, revising building codes to ensure more resilience of critical infrastructure such as schools, hospital and roads, and more investment in flood defences are critical to protect more people against disaster impacts”, Margareta Wahlstrom, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), said.

He said under the programme, the card holders will be able to get free medical treatment and medicines up to Rs 300,000 at the designated public and private hospitals. She further stated that transparency was the hallmark of the National Health Insurance Programme which was aimed to reduce the burden on government hospitals. The first phase of programme will assist 1.2 million families. In 2016, more political stability would come to Pakistan, economy would take off, and peace in the region would bring prosperity for all. He said that program is a step towards fulfilment of the PML-N promise for the establishment of a welfare state.

The programme will run till 2018 under the PC-I, she added. Islamabad hospitals registered for providing treatment including Rawal Medical College, Begum Jan Hospital, Life Care Hospital, Al Nafees Hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Rawal Institute of Cardiology and Al Nusrat Hospital. The government of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were not on board, she said, adding that hopefully they would initiate the programme in their provinces. The implementation of the program in Islamabad will be monitored to improve it with the passage of time. A total of 80 hospitals have been enrolled for programme including CMH, Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan, Badin, Mardan, Kohat, Quetta, Loralai, Muzaffarabad and Skardu.