The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has taken an initiative for poor people and decided to give free liver transplant facilities only to ‘selected poor patients’ under the Social Health Protection Initiative.
As per the report from the health sector, disparate the other syndromes, being treated free of cost under SHPI, the government has decided to provide cashless liver transplants only to the poor people, who are unable to afford the expenses.
For this purpose, SHPI has finalized agreements with two private hospitals, one each in Lahore and Islamabad, for free liver transplant of the citizens of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but due to the high expenses, it has been restricted to entertain only poor patients.
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Moreover, the two hospitals cost about Rs 5 million for a single liver transplant, which can eat up the whole budget of Rs 1 billion allotted for the purpose. The provincial government has assigned Rs 21 billion for the policy for the year 2021-22 that contain Rs 1 billion only for a free liver transplant.
The chief executive officer of SHPI Dr Muhammad Riaz Tanoli told the media that they desired to provide free medical services to poor people. “We will put in place a mechanism on the pattern of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre to judge the financial status of the people wanting to undergo a liver transplant,” he added.
Furthermore, he said that the government also coveted the patients to pay for their pre-transplant screening to reduce the burden on the programme. “Not only liver transplant surgery but the patients would also require post-transplant treatment for six months the cost of which would be paid by SHPI. We want to reduce the chances of rejection of a transplant, therefore, the post-transplant expenses would be paid by the government,” he continued.
