Patient care at 13 government hospitals across the region is sharply declining as private outsourcing firms managing them have not received payments since July due to ongoing technical upgrades at the accountant general’s office. According to a report by Dawn, the health department released PKR 413 million intended for these entities under public-private partnership agreements, yet the funds remain stuck and have not been transferred, leaving hospitals struggling to operate.
Such facilities were earlier outsourced by the government through the Health Foundation (HF), keeping in view the need to improve services. However, the financial bottleneck is negatively affecting the operations. Although the government releases funding quarterly based on the verification of the performance, 13 hospitals are awaiting the financial assistance for July-September. To make matters worse, the instalment for the October-December period is also now overdue.
The situation has triggered calls for contract terminations; the district health officer of Upper Kohistan recently urged the HF to cancel the contract for the District Headquarters Hospital in Dassu, citing a complete failure to deliver services and repeated staff strikes. Despite the HF’s new fund-flow mechanism designed to ensure payments within 20 days of billing, delays persist. When contacted by Dawn, HF Managing Director Dr Khizer Hayat Khan attributed the failure to disburse funds to such "technical problems".
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