Current expenditure for fiscal year 2012: Rs 2.646 billion allocated for health affairs, services

The government has allocated Rs 2.646 billion for health affairs and services under current expenditure for the fiscal year 2011-12, which is Rs 4.809 billion less than actual spending in 2010-11. After decision to devolve the Ministry of Health to provinces, no allocation has been made under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for year 2011-12 to the health sector.
Previously, the government had allocated Rs 16.945 billion for the health sector under the PSDP for fiscal year 2010-11, budget documents reveal. Of the total budget of Rs 2.646 billion allocated for health for 2011-12, Rs 2.435 billion will be spent on hospital services, Rs 140 million on public health services and Rs 70 million on health administration.
In the previous year's budget, Rs 6.62billion were allocated for Health services, Rs 467 million for Public Health Services, Rs 2 million for Research and Development, Rs 258 million for health administration and Rs 80 million for medical products, appliances and equipment.
Sources said the federal government has not allocated a single penny for research and development in the health sector. The federal government has also made no allocation for medical products, appliances and equipment. The health institutions run with funding from the federation include Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS), Federal Government Services Hospital (FGSH), National Institute of Health (NIH), Sheikh Zaid Hospital in Lahore and Quetta and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical College (JPMC).
"In the health sector, Rs 15 billion have been allocated to finance vertical programmes such as Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI), Lady Health Workers, Primary Healthcare and National Maternal Neonatal and Child Health programme," sources said while quoting the budget document. Moreover, they said that population welfare programmes will also be funded by the federal government at a cost of Rs 4 billion.
Sources said after the implementation of the devolution plan, the health sector became a provincial subject. Sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic equipment installed in public sector hospitals and institutes have either become outdated or are not available.
A significant budgetary allocation is needed for the health sector to provide real relief to the public, they said. In the budget 2011-12, the Punjab government allocated Rs 48.8 billion, Sindh Rs 6.95 billion, KPK Rs 6.5 billion and Balochistan Rs 8.869 billion for health, thus a consolidated total of Rs 71.13 billion has been allocated for health in 2011-12.