GUJRAT: The city will soon have a purpose-built special treatment centre for thallassaemia, haemophilia and blood cancer patients under a public-private partnership project.

The centre will preferably be built on Bhimbher Road where Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital (ABSTH) as well as a number of other private medical centres are also located so that the thallassaemia patients could be shifted to the nearby hospital in case of any critical situation or emergency during blood transfusion.

Mir Fazal Abbas, the public relations officer of the Sundas Foundation, told Dawn that some 700 patients of thallassaemia had been registered with the foundation in Gujrat who would visit the foundation’s treatment centre which was already established in a rented house but the number of patients had been increasing day by day making it quite difficult to manage them.

However, he said, the establishment of a purpose-built treatment centre for such patients had been planned with the help of local philanthropists and district administration and some sites had been under consideration for it. The land would be purchased after selection of the required site along the Bhimbher Road.

Mr Abbas said that recently the local business community had arranged a charity lunch where philanthropists had announced to donation of Rs13.5m for purchase of the land but the successful completion of the project required more funding as construction of building as well as provision of medical equipment were also required.

Industrialist Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed announced Rs5m while cricket umpire Aleem Dar announced, Mehmood Ahmed Butt, Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed Warraich, Mian Ijaz Ahmed announced Rs1m donation each for the project.

The Sundas foundation had established its centre in Gujrat about eight years back in a rented house at Marghzar Colony which is insufficient for to cater to the needs of the increasing number of patients and the foundation decided to generate resources, including blood, through donations from the local community since long.

The district administration has also been working on different proposals for the site which the public land, particularly owned by the social welfare department, is being searched by the authorities for the thallassaemia centre. It is also weighing the option of arranging land or an official building near the ABSTH or hospital premises, said a senior official in the district administration. He added that in case of availability of any official land, the management of Sundas Foundation would be convinced to take it.

According to a report, Pakistan has some 10m thallassaemia patients and around 5,000 such children are born in Pakistan with this disease in which the patients need blood transfusion at least after every 10 days as most of such patients.

The Gujrat Thallassaemia Centre of the Sundas Foundation receives patients from Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Jhelum, Bhimbher and Azad Jammu and Kashmir areas.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2017