Sehat Sahulat Program: Assessing the awareness and utilization effectiveness of Sehat Insaf Card among the general population of District Rawalpindi.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the awareness of using Sehat Insaf Card and to determine the utilization effectiveness of Sehat Sahulat Program. Study Design: Cross Sectional study. Setting: Sehat Insaf Card Authorized Hospitals. Period: July 2020 to December 2020. Material & Methods: Data was collected via self-administered questionnaire. The sample size was 316. Non-probability purposive sampling was done. The questionnaire consisted of three parts; Part A: Demographics, Part B: Awareness, Part C: Utilization Effectiveness. IBM, SPSS statistics version 25 was used for data entry. Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage and proportion were measured. Results: Most of the participants belong to the rural area and fall into the category of 10 – 20 thousand monthly income. The awareness about program came from 2 main sources; Word of mouth and campaign by a local party representative. Majority of the services availed were curative services i.e. 72.8%. Before the launch of SSP, 3/4 of the participants self-paid their medical bills and with this program, its 100% free. 72.8% of the total participants were satisfied with the transportation charges covered in SSP. 92% of the total participants felt no discrimination in hospital in any regard, either from the doctor or the paramedical staff. 99.4% of the total participants were of the opinion that Govt of Pakistan should launch similar new programs. Conclusion: Sehat Insaaf Card distribution among the under-privileged citizens was almost similar in the urban and rural population of Rawalpindi. More involvement of females is need of the hour.