KP plans free medicines in 12 districts, with 43 hospitals run by private partners

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department is drawing up a plan to give free medicines and better outpatient, emergency and ward services to patients in 12 districts in the south and the former tribal areas, ProPakistani reported on Monday. The districts are the eight tribal (merged) districts plus Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.

What the plan covers

The immediate priorities, as set out by the official chosen to run it, are:

• outpatient (OPD) and emergency departments
• hospital wards
• diagnostic services such as laboratory tests
• free medicines for patients
• maternal and child health, including gynaecology services

There are three layers to the plan: a three-month proposal for quick fixes, a six-month proposal, and a six-year plan for the longer term. No budget figure has been made public; the report speaks only of "promised funding" for medical supplies and specialised care.

43 hospitals under private management

The province is leaning on its public-private partnership programme, in which qualified private organisations run government hospitals while the buildings stay public and services are supposed to stay free. The figures reported:

The Health Foundation is to help manage these hospitals, and the department says it will monitor them so that residents get free diagnosis and treatment, not extra charges.

Solar power for operating theatres

Power cuts are long in the merged districts, and the plan proposes solarising hospitals so that operating theatres, laboratories and other essential services keep working when the grid fails.

Who will run it

Dr Fazal Rahman, director of the vector-borne diseases and malaria control programme, has been nominated as director health for all 12 districts. The formal notification of his appointment had not been issued when ProPakistani reported the plan.

What it means for patients

For families in Bannu, Tank, DI Khan or a tribal district, the practical test is simple: whether the nearest district or tehsil hospital has the medicine on the shelf and a doctor in the emergency room. Until the plan is notified and funded, patients should still ask at the hospital pharmacy which medicines are free and keep their prescriptions.

The plan comes as KP deals with a large dengue outbreak: see our report on dengue in KP, with 3,771 cases. For private and public hospitals in the provincial capital, see our hospitals in Peshawar directory.