Lahore: Punjab is undergoing what may be its most sweeping healthcare transformation to date. Under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, health has moved from a routine budget line to the centerpiece of governance, backed by a record Rs500. 62 billion allocation for 2026-27 – the largest of any province in Pakistan – and a series of programmes designed to reach citizens historically left out of the system.
The budget signals intent: health spending now makes up over 10 percent of total provincial spending, split between Rs424. 32 billion for running hospitals, salaries and medicine supplies, and Rs76. 3 billion for development. Twenty-four new health schemes worth over Rs81 billion have been proposed, with Rs26. 45 billion earmarked for FY2026-27 and the rest released in later years, extending well beyond Lahore. Planned facilities include a Rs23. 37 billion children’s hospital in Bahawalpur, a cancer hospital in Dera Ghazi Khan, an institute of cardiology in Gujranwala, and a medical college and teaching ho
spital in Mianwali – a genuine attempt to decentralize specialised care into South and Central Punjab.
At the heart of this effort is the “Sehatmand Punjab” programme, a top governance priority featuring free home-delivered medicines, 32 field hospitals for remote areas, and 200 mobile clinics for katchi abadis (informal settlements). Alongside this, 2, 500 basic health units and 300 rural health centres are being upgraded, and three new “medical cities” are planned across the province’s southern, central and northern regions – reform built from the foundations outward rather than through showcase hospitals alone.
That philosophy shows in the conversion of 150 healthcare centres into Maryam Nawaz Health Clinics, staffed by newly appointed doctors and equipped with digital patient-care systems. Dialysis funding per patient has risen from Rs700, 000 to Rs1 million, motorcycle-mounted mobile clinics with telemedicine now reach areas ambulances can’t, and the government has committed to an organ transplant prog
ramme and doorstep insulin delivery for Type 1 diabetics.
Perhaps the most transformative element won’t appear at any ribbon-cutting: Punjab’s digital health census, the largest such exercise by any province in Pakistan. Health and demographic profiles of over 94 million citizens have been registered – five districts at full coverage, eighteen past 85 percent – through 14, 300 Community Health Inspectors going door to door on health status, demographics, socio-economics, water access and disability. Every household is being assigned a unique digital ID. The Chief Minister has stressed that reliable data is the foundation of effective policy, and this census will eventually let the province target medicine distribution, staffing and facility placement with unprecedented precision.
Building on this data foundation, “Maryam Nawaz Community Health Services” is restructuring and expanding the frontline workforce: 20, 000 additional health inspectors are being recruited via outsourcing, and roughly 39, 000 Lady H
ealth Workers integrated into one unified structure, bringing the community health workforce past 60, 000. This workforce will handle nineteen distinct responsibilities, including vaccination and polio drives, with more structured patient records than before. Briefings to the Chief Minister reported 93 percent patient satisfaction with reforms so far – a strong signal even as roughly half the population remains outside full coverage. Medicine supply, long a major complaint against public hospitals, has also seen decisive action. Despite an existing Rs80 billion annual medicine allocation, the Chief Minister ordered a revised, more comprehensive essential medicines list and directed authorities to guarantee an uninterrupted, transparent supply chain, calling medicine denial “criminal negligence. ” This is backed by a new Health Data Analysis Centre for evidence-based evaluation of welfare initiatives, and by community health inspectors conducting regular in-hospital satisfaction surveys. Officials reported ove
r 2, 500 doctors recruited in the preceding two years, 585, 000 patients registered for home delivery of cardiac medicines, and doorstep delivery completed for 6, 000 hepatitis and tuberculosis patients.
To address the specialist doctor shortage, the government launched the Punjab Health Connect Programme, bringing overseas Pakistani and foreign medical specialists into government hospitals to provide free treatment and train local doctors – importing expertise directly rather than waiting years for domestic training pipelines to close the gap, while also aligning Punjab’s system with global standards. The province’s response to last year’s devastating monsoon floods further demonstrates this seriousness.
With millions affected across two dozen districts and hundreds of health facilities damaged, Punjab stood up 588 relief camps and worked with the WHO and partners to deploy mobile health units delivering essential services, safe water and hygiene kits to displaced communities. Weekly coordination meetings,
proactive disease surveillance and hygiene-focused risk-communication campaigns helped avert a larger public health catastrophe – evidence of real institutional capacity even amid a long-term reform push.
Together, these initiatives reflect a coherent, well-resourced, data-driven strategy treating healthcare as one system to be rebuilt – from household census data to community health workers, free medicine delivery, and specialist hospitals in underserved regions. The Punjab Finance Minister has framed this as improved governance and sustainable policy intervention, and officials have repeatedly emphasised that health investment is investment in human capital, making the Rs500. 62 billion commitment a substantial down payment on that principle.
No reform of this scale happens overnight, and a province of over a hundred million people won’t transform
in one budget cycle. But the current effort’s comprehensiveness stands out: tertiary infrastructure and specialists, primary-level workforce and medicine suppl
y, and – crucially – the data systems to make every future decision sharper than the last. With 2, 500 new doctors, a 60, 000-strong community health workforce, three medical
cities under construction, and a 94-million-strong digital census nearing completion, Punjab has laid the architecture for a system reaching every household – not just those near its major cities. If sustained, this could make Punjab’s public healthcare system a genuine model for the rest of the country within a few years.
