CHITRAL: Patients and attendants at the District Headquarters Hospital have urged the government to extend the Sehat Sahulat Programme to all inpatients, as it is currently available only for those undergoing surgery.

Ayun Amjad Haider, an attendant of a patient in the ENT ward, told Dawn that he had to purchase injections and other medicines from the local market as he was denied the facility of Sehat Card.

He said that the hospital administration had informed him that only patients admitted for labour or surgery were eligible to use the SehatCard facility.

Mr Haider stated that while the government was promoting its Sehat Sahulat initiative as one of its hallmark programmes for the benefit of the common citizens, over 90 per cent of the community viewed it as taboo.

When the hospital`s Medical Superintendent Dr Shahzada Haiderul Mulk was contacted, he confirmed that the facility was extended to all indoor patients for surgery cases only as per the policy of the government.

An official of the Sehat Sahulat Programme, based in the hospital, said that he was bound to facilitate only those indoor patients who were recommended by the doctor of the concerned ward.