Saira Afzal launches PM’s National Health Programme in Khushab

KHUSHAB: Federal Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar on Wednesday launched the services of the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme in the Khushab district.

The minister also distributed health cards to the deserving families enrolled under the programme in a ceremony attended by local public representatives and a large number of people.

Speaking on the occasion, she said the program launched in Khushab would benefit 85,000 poor families of the district.

They will be able to get free of cost quality healthcare from both public and private hospitals that have been empanelled by the programme.

She said it was the vision of her leader Nawaz Sharif to ensure that no one was deprived of quality healthcare due to the lack of resources.

“We believe in performance alone and the largest ever health programme providing best services free of cost to the poor speaks for itself.  With the support of the people who elected us into office, we have taken major strides in the sectors of health, energy, security and infrastructure with projects completed in record time with no precedent in the past 70 years,” said Saira.

“While others were indulging in politics of hatred, sloganeering and intrigues, we were busy resolving the most critical issues of the people that directly impact their lives and welfare.”

She said as of January 31, 2018, more than 1,655,657 families have been enrolled in the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme and more than 56,000 families have been treated for various illnesses from 125 empanelled hospitals across Pakistan.

There is also an option of inter-district portability in the programme which enables the enrolled beneficiaries and families to access quality indoor hospital services from any empanelled hospital, both in the public and private sectors.

In the programme, each enrolled family will be ensured up to Rs50,000 per year for secondary care treatment and up to Rs250,000 per year for priority care treatment.

The admitted patients who have consumed their limits will be provided with additional limits from the Pakistan Baitul Maal.

This excess limit coverage will also be applicable to obstetric patients and those in an emergency.

A very stringent monitoring system through the Central Management Information System (CMIS) is being used to monitor the activities under the programme in real time.

The system has been developed in collaboration with NADRA and is being used for quick decision making with real-time implementation.

The program also enjoys a high level of client satisfaction rate of more than 94%. This satisfaction rate has been assessed by NADRA as a third party monitor.

The NADRA call centre randomly calls the discharged patients/beneficiaries and records their feedback with the help of a specially designed questionnaire to assess their satisfaction with the provided services.

Due to these rigorous in-built monitoring systems, the Prime Minister’s National Health Program has also been lauded by different international bodies including the World Health Organization and the Asian Development Bank, she said.