OUR STAFF REPORTER (JAFAR)
KARACHI - From poverty to illiteracy and from low productivity in economy to poor health sector, Pakistan desperately needs to develop a self-growing socio-economic system to meet the needs of the people and provide them with their basic rights.
President Mamnoon Hussain expressed these remarks at the inaugural ceremony of the expansion plan of The Indus Hospital at the Governor’s House the other day.
The president said that Pakistan was a developing country with lots of needs and requirements.
“The state is responsible for creating a healthy political, social and economic environment conducive to development but the civil society at the same time should also play role in ensuring its efficient functioning,” he said.
The president said that The Indus Hospital was sharing government’s responsibility and playing its part in country’s development. “I strongly feel that we should be supporting Indus by offering them exemption in tax and duty. This will help the management utilise all its resources for the treatment of millions of patients and ensure that a larger number of citizens get benefit from the tertiary care facility,” Mamnoon said.
He said the magnitude of work being done by the Indus team in healthcare sector was commendable.
“Directly benefitting over 1.5 million patients at an operational expenditure of over Rs 3 billion over the last six years speaks volume of the efficiency of the Indus management with which it has been able to support the government and share its responsibility of providing free of cost quality healthcare to the less privileged people,” the president said.
The Indus Hospital is providing free of cost quality treatment to the less privileged people. Because of the growing need of such a healthcare facility, The Indus Hospital is now on a path of expansion from 150 beds to more than 1500 beds.
A ceremony was also held at The Indus Hospital the same day in which Dr Abdul Bari, CEO of The Indus Hospital, said the facility was one of Pakistan’s biggest free healthcare providers. He said hospital’s current nine-bed emergency ward would be expanded to 104 beds which would enhance the current ability to cater 1,000 outdoor patients to 5,500 patients per day.
Tariq Alexander Qaiser, the principal architect of The Indus Hospital, also took the stage and briefed the participants about the expansion project. He said that after expansion the hospital would also be offering services of Gynecology, Neurology and Oncology to cater to the needs of a large number of people who could not afford quality healthcare. The hospital will also start up its dental department and a complete Medical University in its 2nd and 3rd phase. “We are confident to complete expansion of the hospital in the next 10 years and for that purpose we will be in need of about Rs 50 billion from the supporters of quality healcare free of cost.