The Punjab Health Initiative Management Company (PHIMC) board has approved the chief minister’s special healthcare programs for cancer, stroke, and heart patients.
The decision was taken during a board meeting chaired by Punjab Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique.
He said the government will provide free diagnosis, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgical and medical treatment to cancer patients at an annual cost of Rs. 13 billion. Stroke patients will receive free treatment worth more than Rs. 1.2 billion each year.
Under the Chief Minister’s Adult Cardiac Surgery Programme, patients will be provided free treatment costing Rs. 3 billion annually.
Under the Chief Minister’s Children’s Heart Surgery Programme, at least 9,648 children have received free heart surgeries across Punjab so far. These include 391 children from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 234 from Azad Kashmir, 101 from Islamabad, 28 from Balochistan, 31 from Gilgit-Baltistan, and 25 from Sindh. The programme has cost billions of rupees.
Under another government initiative, 1,151 organ transplants have been carried out free of charge. These include 613 kidney transplants, 315 cochlear implants, 185 liver transplants, 16 bone marrow transplants, and 22 corneal transplants.
The provincial secretary concerned said instructions have been issued to address the problems faced by patients at empanelled hospitals.
According to official data, more than 700 patients across Punjab recovered from stroke during the past year. The stroke management programme ensures the free provision of the life-saving TNK injection, which costs around Rs. 300,000 per dose.
The injections are being administered at 14 stroke management centres across the province. These centres are located at Services Hospital, General Hospital, and Mayo Hospital in Lahore; Nishtar Hospital in Multan; and Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Rahim Yar Khan.
Additional stroke management centres have been set up in Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Narowal, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Layyah. Authorities have also issued instructions to expand the programme to other districts.