The Punjab government has allocated an amount of Rs 263.22 billion for the health sector in its budget for FY 2017-18. A range of reform initiatives and development projects have been initiated including revisiting the legal framework for drug manufacturing followed by unprecedented campaign against spurious drugs, revitalising drug laboratories and establishment of a reference laboratory, establishment of state of the art supply chain system for provision of drugs to health facilities as well as patients.
The provincial government is also establishing Punjab Public Health Authority for greater focus to preventive healthcare and revitalising Directorate General of Health Services. The provincial health infrastructure is also being upgraded by revamping all DHQ hospitals and THQ hospitals incrementally. As per budget document, the government has also initiated outsourcing management of RHC hospitals, especially around Lahore, and have realized phenomenal gains in service delivery. Another major initiative is to provide diagnostic facilities including CT scan machines at DHQ hospitals by private sector service providers.
The specialised healthcare and medical education department has embarked upon major improvement by provision of state of the art medical facilities in tertiary care hospitals, improving allocations for provision of medicines and other services including free dialysis and hepatitis medicines, establishment of new medical colleges and upgradation of attached teaching hospitals. Besides, the government has also initiated a comprehensive health insurance scheme with an allocation of Rs 2.0 billion.
An amount of Rs 108.6 billion is proposed to be allocated to this sector for its various initiatives. Another flagship initiative embarked upon by the provincial government is focus on hepatitis control. Both the departments have initiated programmes for establishment of filter clinics for diagnostic services and provision of free medicines throughout the province and establishment of state of the art Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) at Lahore besides strengthening related services in all tertiary hospitals.
Another important initiative in public health is provision of potable water throughout the province. Some Rs 25 billion have been reserved for clean drinking water project (Punjab Saaf Pani Programme) and a few other initiatives for improving water availability in the next financial year. The programme will initially focus southern Punjab.