MULTAN: Nishtar Board of Management (BoM) chairman Khwaja Jalaluddin Romi says a 400-bed hospital can be built through donations if the government allocates land.

“We are ready to set up a new hospital of 300 to 400 beds with the help of donors and philanthropists in Multan if the Punjab government allocates land for it.”

Addressing a fund-raising dinner at NMI Assembly Hall, he said since the burden of patients at the Nishtar Medical Institute (NMI) was increasing, a new hospital was a pressing need of the hour.

Romi said the Punjab government had approved increasing the number of beds at the NMI from 1,103 to 1,500, adding that a ward was meant for 36 patients, while it was catering to more than 70 patients making the occupancy rate 175 per cent.

The BoM chairman also pledged to provide one bed for the new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Rs 1.5 million that would be dedicated to his mother.

Speaking on the occasion, Acting Multan Commissioner Zahid Saleem Gondal said a piece of land could be provided if the NMI administration came up with a final plan. He also announced his one month salary for the fund.

He said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had earmarked Rs 1 billion for three projects in Multan, including five colleges, three for girls and two for boys, besides a big zoo and expressways.

Local donors, philanthropists, doctors and alumni of NMI pledged over Rs 50 million for the health facility established in 1951.

Earlier, NMI Principal Dr Samee Akhtar, in his welcome address, said that Khawaja Jalaluddin Romi had initiated 'own a ward policy' under which one could donate one time, or periodically and added that they needed hi-tech beds for recently upgraded ICU.

“As charity begins at home, I donate a bed to ICU,” Dr Samee said.—APP