OPD patients to get free treatment in four districts.

PESHAWAR -- The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is extending Sehat Sahulat Programme to OPD patients in four designated districts for free diagnostic and treatment services with the financial assistance of the Government of Germany.

'The German government has agreed to spend Euros 9.4 million over a period of two years to provide free treatment facilities to the people visiting the outpatients departments in the four districts - Malakand, Mardan, Kohat and Chitral,' Dr Riaz Tanoli, head of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sehat Sahulat Programme, told Dawn.

He said that the government in collaboration with Germany started the programme in those districts in 2015 for hospitalised patients under which three per cent population was provided free treatment.

'As the initiative proved very successful in provision of free services to the patients on the basis of which provincial government started its own Sehat Sahulat Programme (SSP) and started provision of services to 51 per cent people in August 2016,' said Dr Riaz.

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Germany providing financial assistance to the programme in Malakand, Mardan, Kohat and Chitral

He said that the initiative was latter extended to 64 per cent population after one year and it was going to cover the entire population of the province from the next fiscal year.

'So far, the government has spent over Rs5 billion on free treatment of 190,000 patients under the SSP. We are making preparations for coverage of the entire population,' he said.

Dr Riaz said that SSP had been extending free investigative and treatment services to only hospitalsied patients at about 85 government and private hospitals designated throughout the province but the latest initiative would enable people to get free OPD services in four districts.

He said that the programme, to be launched in the designated districts next year, could be extended to other...