The Punjab government has made significant changes to the nursing admission policy, eliminating both the free hostel and the Rs31,600 monthly stipend for students.

In most cases, this means that their families, who are already struggling financially, will bear the full cost of their education.

The new policy is seen as a significant setback to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz's efforts to give aspirational young women, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, free nursing education.

Health Secretary Azmat Mahmood and Punjab Health Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique are blamed by the critics for the policy's shortcomings because they developed the proposals and submitted them to the chief minister for final approval.

According to the experts, Ms Nawaz has been kept in the dark about the financial consequences of the programme, which would primarily affect the impoverished parents of aspiring nurses.

Additionally, the experts perceive it as a methodical and gradual move by the health authorities to privatise nursing education, which they fear could have severe long-term effects on the public healthcare system, which was already experiencing a severe shortage of skilled and experienced nurses throughout the province.

The University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore has been designated as the admission authority for the four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN Generic) programme in accordance with the recently implemented policy. 3,100 places (in the morning batch) would be available for admission to 45 public nursing institutes in Punjab.

In a similar vein, the Punjab government has increased the number of places in 15 public nursing institutes by 1,400 for evening programmes. One hundred of these 1,400 places have been allotted to each government nursing college.

The College of Nursing Mayo Hospital/King Edward Medical University, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital/Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Jinnah Hospital/Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore General Hospital/Ameerud Din Medical College, Allied Hospital, Faisalabad, Nishtar Hospital, Multan, DHQ Hospital, Dera Ghazi Khan, and so on were among them.

Now the female nursing students, who are primarily from low- and middle-class rural or urban families, will have to choose between paying the expensive hostel fees or choosing expensive private housing far from their hometowns, endangering their personal safety.

He claims that in the past, girls from low-income homes could pursue a promising career in nursing thanks to subsidised nursing education.

Students and their parents are resentful of the government's decision to stop providing financial help.

However, the policy also describes the requirements, evaluation standards, and application procedure for nursing college admissions.