According to official sources, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has chosen to provide free liver transplants exclusively to “selected impoverished people” under the Social Health Protection Initiative.
Unlike other ailments that are covered for free under the SHPI, the government has decided that cashless liver transplants will only be available to the poor who cannot afford the costs.
SHPI has already signed contracts with two private hospitals, one in Lahore and the other in Islamabad, to provide free liver transplants to residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but due to the exorbitant costs, only impoverished patients would be considered.
The cost of a single liver transplant at the two hospitals is around Rs5 million, which may wipe out the whole Rs1 billion fund set aside for the procedure. The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has set up Rs21 billion for the initiative in the years 2021-22, of which only Rs1 billion has been allotted.
