The federal government has announced plans to set up 46 hospitals across the country. This would be the second health-related initiative undertaken by Nawaz Sharif in eight months which should be welcomed.
In December 2015, Nawaz Sharif announced the Prime Minister’s National Health Scheme. The scheme was meant to ensure that families living below poverty line were provided free of cost access to secondary as well as priority diseases treatment. With the Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government unwilling to endorse the scheme it was decided to launch it in the rest of the country. Eight months after its inauguration the scheme has covered Islamabad, Muzaffarabad, Kotli and Quetta only. There are 19 other cities and Agencies in the list where the Prime Minister has yet to visit to personally inaugurate the scheme. Nawaz Sharif had to spend 48 days in London while undergoing heart treatment. He has had a busy schedule afterwards. The government meanwhile has yet to provide figures regarding the total beneficiaries of the scheme and how long it will take to cover the remaining districts. Despite already having too many irons in the fire, the PM has decided to monitor the health policy also which does not augur well.
The National Health Scheme had two limitations. First, it benefitted only the section of the population below the poverty line which deserved to be given priority for being incapable of bearing the expenses of serious ailments. Second, it excluded Sindh and KP. The hospitals being set up by the federal government are however open to all sections of society and would be set up in all the provinces as well as AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan. Hopefully, provincial governments would provide land for the hospitals at the earliest. The good thing about the scheme is that it will cover some of the most neglected towns of the country though one does not find any mention of Kotli Sattian in the list which had been promised a state of the art hospital by the PM in April this year.