PESHAWAR: The stoppage of treatment from reserved funds on Sehat Card Plus (SCP) has led to suspension of dialysis of 11,000 and medical care of 2,000 cancer patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC), implementer of the SCP on behalf of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, suspended provision of free healthcare services to cancer patients, intensive care and liver and kidney transplants besides dialysis owing to exhaustion of the reserved funds on May 2.

Under the SCP package, each family in the province is entitled to avail treatment up to Rs1 million free of cost. However, a patient requiring more than Rs400,000 for free treatment is cured through reserved funds.Sources in SLIC said that the step was taken owing to nonavailability of reserved funds.

They said that the patients, who already spent their limit of Rs400,000 during the current year, would not be entertained under the free treatment scheme.

The patients suffering from cancer or those undergoing dialysis or getting intensive care in addition to those, who undergo kidney and liver transplants, are also beneficiaries of the reserved funds because the services they need cost more than the sanctioned amount required in normal circumstances.

Officials said that SCP was informed that there was no money left in the reserve funds owing to which the services could not be extended to patients anymore.

The order to suspend treatment from reserved funds has also affected those, who are waiting for their liver and kidney transplants, the cost of which is Rs5 million and Rs1.4 million, respectively. However, physicians say such patients can wait to undergo surgeries but those requiring dialysis and can-cer treatment have been hard-hit as they require continues treatment.

They said that the cost of one session of dialysis was more than Rs3,000, which was provided free to them under the programme.

`Some patients undergo dialysis every week and they used to get it free in empanelled hospitals. But, now 90 per cent of the patients cannot afford it and their conditions will further deteriorate and may lead to deaths of many,` a senior physician told Dawn.

He said that dialysis was a lifesaving procedure owing to which the patients were able to live but its stoppage due to shortage of funds made it difficult for them to survive.

Same is situation of cancer patients, who were receiving free services in hospitals but they are now facing problems to keep their treatment continued.

`Cancer treatment is very expensive and SCP has enabled patients to get services free. Now the patients are not able to bear the expenses and as result their life style will get down and ultimately many would die for wantof treatment,` oncologists said.

They said that offering free services to cancer patients on SCP was benefitting the people, who were unable to afford the cost of treatment from their own pockets. Now they are destined to suffer.

The programme, started in 2016, had incurred a total of more than Rs50 billion on the treatment of 2.2 million patients in the province. Officials said that Rs1.39 billion had been spent on the treatment of patients, who required more than Rs400,000 for the cure, from reserved funds.

So far, more than 140 patients have undergone free renal transplants and 30 have availed the facility of free liver transplants from reserved funds.

The government pays an agreed amount to the insurance company every month and certain part of the amount goes to the reserved funds, which are utilised for the treatment of patients. However, during the last few months, the SLIC has not been paid regularly owing to which the reserved funds remained depleting and now the balance is zero.