Sindh: Blood test before marriage law in the offing

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: The Sindh Health Department has initiated a legislation process to regulate private hospitals, take action against quacks and make a blood test of a couple mandatory before their marriage. The draft bills of these three laws have been sent to the law department for screening.

During a presentation of the legislation and the micro health insurance scheme at his office, Provincial Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmed said that the three bills will soon be tabled in the Sindh Assembly, after which legal actions will be taken against quacks and private hospitals and clinics for charging a heavy fee for substandard healthcare facilities, as well as compelling poor patients to unnecessarily undergo different tests.

The minister revealed that the Sindh government has decided to provide a free health insurance facility, costing around Rs 703.814 million, to 6.5 million deserving people of the province. "Rs 138 million will be spent on the project during the current year," he said, adding that talks between the provincial government and insurance companies are in their final stages.

Saghir said that under the scheme, a person could avail treatment worth Rs 25,000 in a year, adding that pregnant women will also receive Rs 25,000 when they deliver their babies. In the first phase, the 3.2 million poorest people of 400,000 families in 11 districts- Tharparkar, Umerkot, Larkana, Shikarpur, Kashmore, Sukkur, Khairpur, Thatta, Badin, Dadu and Nawabshah- will be issued insurance cards after registration. In case any person becomes disabled, the insurance company will pay him Rs 25,000, while Rs 100,000 will be paid if the bread-earner of a family dies in an accident or due to a disease. His heirs will also be paid expenses for his burial.

The poorest and the most deserving people will be selected on the basis of a survey conducted by the Sindh Rural Support Organization. The scope of the scheme will gradually be extended to other districts of the province.

The health minister expected that the implementation of the project will begin in a month. Health Secretary Muhammad Hussain Syed, Additional Secretary Development Dr Sri Chand and other officials were also present at the occasion. ppi

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