The government of Gilgit-Baltistan has allotted prime land to Al-Shifa Trust to construct a state-of-the-art eye hospital. The 20-kanal piece of land is situated on Karakorum Highway near Aga Khan Hospital, accessible to people from remote areas for treatment. President of Al-Shifa Trust, Maj. Gen. (retired) Rehmat Khan, while briefing a board meeting of the trust, said that the GB government had issued the allotment letter during his recent visit to the area.
The site allocated for the eye hospital is just three kilometres away from the city, and the hospital will be able to treat 150 OPD patients per day and conduct 50 surgeries daily, he informed.
Rehmat Khan said that the hospital will be constructed with the help of the Rupani Foundation Pakistan, which has been reaching out to vulnerable populations for the last 16 years.
This hospital will be the first state-of-the-art hospital in the area, which will cost around 220 million rupees, and the Rupani Foundation will bear half of its cost while the trust will arrange the remaining cost through donations, he informed.
The trust’s president said the hospital’s groundbreaking ceremony will be held in March 2024, and the grey structure will be completed by July 2025.
He noted that people of GB are badly affected by eye diseases, and a large number are facing blindness due to cataracts; therefore, it was necessary to provide them with a facility at their doorstep.
The hospital will also establish an attachment of medicines and mental health to treat general patients, he said, adding that training of paramedics will be started at Rawalpindi Eye Hospital. In this regard, a diploma course is being offered to the GB students on a preferable basis.
The trust has already started serving the patients, and arrangements regarding a series of camps have been finalized. A 2-day free surgical eye camp and general medical camp have already been organized at RHQ Hospital, Chilas, along with school screening activities in collaboration with FCNA (Pak Army).
The camp was visited by Section Commander Diamer Bhasha Dam, Col Irfan Ghazi, Mr M Iqbal, Medical Superintendent RHQ Hospital Chilas, and Dr Javaid Ur Rehman, Provincial Coordinator for the Prevention and Control of Blindness, GB, he informed.
President of Al-Shifa Trust, Maj. Gen. (retired) Rehmat Khan said that the camp in Chilas was a part of Al-Shifa’s outreach activities to offer specialized eye care in remote areas of Pakistan.
After Rawalpindi, Kohat, Sukkur, Muzaffarabad, and Chakwal, and Asia’s largest children’s eye hospital located at Rawalpindi, the hospital will be the seventh facility established by the trust. It is worth mentioning that all the services are provided free of cost to 80% of patients.