PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is including 600,000 more f amilies for free treatment under the Sehat Sahulat Programme bringing the coverage of the initiative launched in January this year from current 51 per cent of the province`s population to 69 per cent.The government had agreed to allocate Rs1 billion for the additional f amilies, who will begin getting free treatment from Jan next year, said the relevant of ficials.

More than 17 million people had already been getting free treatment at around 60 designated public and private hospitals throughout the province. Around 42,000 patients have so far been treated under the programme.

The KP government had allocated Rs5.4 billion for the programme from which Rs880 million had been spent so far. Initially, the government had issued Sehat Insaf Cards (SICs) to 1.8 million families in the province butlater around 80,000 families were found missing. Now, the government has decided to extend the programme to cover more families in line with the data of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

TheBISPdatahadrecordedtheeconomic status of the whole population of the country on the basis of their income, officials said.

Now, the additional families will be given issued SICs on the basis of the same data but people with a little more income than previously deserving lots, would also be registered.

The government would start distribution of cards in October this year to the new people, officials informed.The programme has been implemented by the State Life Insurance Corporation, which has deployed its representatives at the designated counters at the authorised hospitals.

At the beginning of the programme, the public sector hospitals moved at a snail`s pace as they had no proper arrangements to facilitate the patients under the programme and bulk of the cardholders visited the private hospitals, where they were readily accepted.

On the contrary, the government hospitals were unable to speed up the programme because they were unsure about the payment by SLIC and the way how to provide space forthese patients because the beds and OPDs were meant for general patients.

In the process, the private hospitals benefited from the programme as the patients went there in droves and the payment was m ade every month by the SLIC regularly, which tempted the public sector hospitals, which began arrangements for the IC holders to generate revenue.

Currently, the medical teaching institutions, including the Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex, are the big recipients of patients entitled to the programme, while the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, and AyubTeaching Hospital, Abbottabad, have treated 2000 patients each.

The government hospitals are admitting patients to private rooms, where they are treated as private patients by the doctors.

The government gives Rs1,549 annual premium to the SLIC and each family is entitled to get free treatment up to Rs540,000 at any hospital.

Meanwhile, the government has also approved a summary to enlist employees of the law department, journalists, social welfare department andtransgenderpersonsforfree treatment under the programme for which the relevant department will pay the premium.