QUETTA
The next board meeting of the Balochistan Awami Endowment Fund (BAEF) would be held in the first week of August after a period of seven months due to a lack of funds to approve more cases of poor patients.
As many as 500 more cases would be approved in the 20th board meeting of BAEF to provide financial assistance to poor patients, the Coordinator of BAEF.
The coordinator said the programme was receiving Rs70 million monthly as seed money but the need of the poor people had gone above Rs500 million. The board meeting of the program could not commence after December last year due to the unavailability of funds to approve more cases of needy patients suffering from different chronic diseases, he added.
Noorullah said with the approval of 500 more cases the tally would be reached to 3500 patients being treated under the BAEF initiative in the best public and private sector hospitals across the country.
Under the initiative, Rs 2.9 billion had been provided to poor patients for the treatment of “open heart surgery, Thalassemia, cancer, liver and kidney transplants, adding that all cases have been approved by the medical board on merit. He had submitted the proposal to the provincial government to issue an Rs500 million supplementary budget to the special support programme so that the needs of the people could be met.
He urged the government to convert the programme into a permanent authority to ensure the best healthcare facilities for a maximum number of poor people suffering from chronic diseases. He also urged the private sector to come forward and join hands with the government for the noble cause.
Noorullah said this initiative was the first of the best welfare programmes in South Asia, which was supporting the needy through cash transfers. He said that agreements have been inked with 15 private and public sector hospitals to provide the best healthcare facilities without any delay to the patients suffering from chronic daises.
