TY - JOUR
T1 - “Sehat Sahulat Program”
T2 - A Leap into the Universal Health Coverage in Pakistan
AU - Hasan, Syed Shahzad
AU - Mustafa, Zia Ul
AU - Kow, Chia Siang
AU - Merchant, Hamid A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are thankful to the Federal Sehat Sahulat Program (SSP), Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSR&C), Government of Pakistan for their cooperation and providing the SSP statistics.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/6/7
Y1 - 2022/6/7
N2 - Universal Health Coverage (UHC), initiative from the World Health Organization (WHO), is a means to provide the human right to health by providing essential health services to everyone, enabling disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. In line with the WHO recommendations, the UHC was first introduced in Pakistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province under the name ‘Sehat Sahulat Programme’ (SSP), literally ‘Health Facility Program’ in 2015. The provincial Government in Punjab approved a similar initiative in Punjab, the largest province (by population) of the country, and the program was later rolled out in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad and Jammu Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB), Sindh, and Baluchistan provinces leaping into the nation-wide coverage. This article provides a current overview of the UHC initiative in Pakistan, analyses its progress in appraising key milestones, and makes recommendations to achieve a robust universal health coverage across Pakistan.
AB - Universal Health Coverage (UHC), initiative from the World Health Organization (WHO), is a means to provide the human right to health by providing essential health services to everyone, enabling disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. In line with the WHO recommendations, the UHC was first introduced in Pakistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province under the name ‘Sehat Sahulat Programme’ (SSP), literally ‘Health Facility Program’ in 2015. The provincial Government in Punjab approved a similar initiative in Punjab, the largest province (by population) of the country, and the program was later rolled out in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad and Jammu Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB), Sindh, and Baluchistan provinces leaping into the nation-wide coverage. This article provides a current overview of the UHC initiative in Pakistan, analyses its progress in appraising key milestones, and makes recommendations to achieve a robust universal health coverage across Pakistan.
KW - Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP)
KW - low and middle-income countries
KW - Sehat Insaf Cards
KW - Universal Health Coverage
KW - World Health Organisation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131312404&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19126998
DO - 10.3390/ijerph19126998
M3 - Comment/debate
AN - SCOPUS:85131312404
VL - 19
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
SN - 1661-7827
IS - 12
M1 - 6998
ER -
