Punjab Social Security Mobile Health Units 2026: Free Treatment for Workers and Families

For an industrial worker, a visit to the doctor usually means a lost day of wages. You travel to a hospital, wait in a long queue, and return home tired with a small paper slip in your hand. The Punjab Social Security Mobile Health Programme tries to change that daily struggle. Launched in Lahore on Monday, 12 October 2026, it brings free treatment to registered industrial workers at their workplaces and to their families at their homes. In this guide, you will learn who gets free treatment, which services cost nothing, and how to make sure your family is covered before the unit arrives.

Free Treatment at Your Workplace and Doorstep

The heart of this programme is one simple promise: care will come to you. Workers receive care at their workplace, in factories, commercial establishments and industrial units. Family members receive care at home, at doorstep level. You do not have to gather your family and travel to a far hospital for a basic checkup, a test or routine medicines.

This matters most for daily wage and shift workers. A mobile hospital parked near your factory gate can finish your checkup in your break time. A team visiting your colony can examine your mother or your child at home. When care is close and free, people take it early, and small health problems do not grow into big hospital bills.

• For workers: treatment and checkup at the factory or workplace
• For families: care at home and at the doorstep level
• No travel cost: the unit follows routes set by PESSI
• No fee: social security medical care is free for secured workers
• Early diagnosis: small problems are caught before they become serious

Who Gets Free Treatment Under This Programme

Free treatment is for registered workers, the workers PESSI calls secured workers, and for their families and dependents. Your right to this care comes from your employer. When your employer is registered with PESSI and pays the social security contribution, you become a secured worker under the Provincial Employees Social Security Ordinance, 1965.

That contribution is 6 percent of wages, and the employer pays it. Nothing is deducted from your salary for it. If your factory is not registered with PESSI, you sit outside this system, and the mobile units cannot treat you as a secured worker. The programme does not cover the general public or unregistered and informal workers. Please read that line again, because it decides everything else in this article.

• Covered: workers whose employer is registered with PESSI
• Covered: wives, children and dependents of secured workers
• Contribution: 6 percent of wages, paid by the employer only
• Not covered: general public and unregistered informal workers
• Your cover: flows from your existing PESSI record, not a new form

Services You Can Get Without Paying

A mobile hospital is not a small first aid box. It carries doctors, equipment and medicines, so most daily health needs can be handled in one visit. The mobile clinics add consultation and telemedicine, while special dental and cardiac units handle teeth and heart problems that a normal camp cannot manage.

• OPD and consultation: full doctor checkup and advice
• Free checkup: general examination, including by female doctors
• Lab tests: pathology tests done through the mobile hospital team
• X-ray and ultrasound: imaging inside the equipped mobile units
• Medicines: medicines provided by the unit after your checkup
• First aid: quick help for cuts, pain and sudden small problems
• Telemedicine: specialist opinion without travel to a big hospital
• Health awareness: simple guidance to protect your family health

The staff tells you a lot about the quality. Mobile hospitals carry doctors, female doctors, radiologists, nurses, and laboratory and X-ray technicians. When a radiologist and a lab technician travel with the doctor, your test and your report do not need three separate trips to three separate places.

Heart Screening for Workers and School Children

Heart disease often stays silent until it becomes an emergency. That is why the programme carries a dedicated Mobile Rheumatic Heart Disease Screening Unit, often called the RHD screening unit. Rheumatic heart disease can start after untreated throat infections, and early screening can catch it while treatment is still simple and effective.

The screening plan is large. It will cover 29,845 factories, industrial establishments and other institutions in Lahore, Sheikhupura and Kasur. Mobile teams will also screen around 54,000 children studying in workers welfare schools across Punjab for heart diseases. If your child is in a workers welfare school, support the screening when the team visits. It costs you nothing and it can protect your child for life.

• Screening focus: rheumatic heart disease and early heart problems
• Workplaces covered: 29,845 factories and institutions in 3 districts
• Children targeted: around 54,000 in workers welfare schools
• Cardiac unit role: early diagnosis and consultation on the spot

How Families at Home Will Be Served

Many health programmes remember the worker and forget the family. This one speaks clearly about families. The Chief Minister Office statement says family members will receive care at home. In practice, that means teams will reach workers colonies and homes, with motorcycles and scooters carrying medical kits, first aid supplies and essential medicines along designated routes.

Female doctors in the teams make home care easier for many families. A mother who hesitates to visit a crowded hospital can speak to a lady doctor near her own door. Children can be examined without a long bus ride. Elderly parents can get a basic check and medicines without standing in a queue. You can read about PESSI and its facilities on the official website at pessi.gop.pk, which is the only official online source for this programme.

• Home visits: teams reach workers colonies and homes
• Motorcycles and scooters: carry kits and medicines on set routes
• Female doctors: make home care easier for women and children
• Elderly care: basic checks and medicines without hospital queues

How to Make Sure Your Family Is Covered

You cannot fill a new form for this programme, because no separate registration for the mobile units was announced. Your cover flows from your existing PESSI record. So your job is simple: confirm that your employer is registered with PESSI and that your name sits in the records as a secured worker. Ask your factory administration office or your HR section, in clear words, about your social security status.

If you learn that your factory is not registered, speak to your employer first. Registration is the employer duty under the law, and the contribution is also paid by the employer. Keep your personal details correct with your employer, because the unit serves families through the worker record. A correct record today means smooth treatment when the mobile hospital reaches your gate. The government also plans to expand the programme to more districts across Punjab by March 2027, so workers outside the first three districts should watch for future announcements.

• Step 1: ask your employer if the factory is registered with PESSI
• Step 2: confirm your name is listed as a secured worker
• Step 3: keep your family details updated with your employer
• Step 4: listen for visit information from your factory office
• Step 5: keep your CNIC and worker record ready for the visit

Conclusion

Mobile Health Units bring free treatment to PESSI registered workers at their workplaces and to their families at home in Lahore, Kasur and Sheikhupura. The service is free because your employer already pays the social security contribution, and no new form is needed. Confirm your secured worker status with your employer today, keep your family details updated, and be ready when the mobile hospital reaches your factory gate or your doorstep. For official information, the PESSI website and the Labour and Human Resource Department helpline 1314 remain the trusted sources.

FAQs

Who can get free treatment from the mobile health units?
Only PESSI registered, or secured, industrial workers and their families and dependents can get free treatment. Workers are served at their workplace and family members are served at home.

Do I have to pay for tests and medicines?
No. For secured workers, consultation, checkups, lab tests, X-ray, ultrasound and medicines provided by the units are part of free social security medical care.

My employer is not registered with PESSI. Can I still use a unit?
No, not as a secured worker. The programme works through employer registration with PESSI. Speak to your employer about registration, because the 6 percent contribution is paid by the employer, not by you.

Are women doctors available in the mobile teams?
Yes. The mobile hospital staff includes female doctors along with doctors, radiologists, nurses, and laboratory and X-ray technicians, which helps women workers and families at home.

Will the programme reach districts beyond Lahore, Kasur and Sheikhupura?
The government plans to expand the programme to more districts across Punjab by March 2027. Workers outside the first three districts should follow official PESSI announcements for their turn.