ISLAMABAD: An organisation of overseas Pakistanis has announced to establish a modern charity hospital in Pakistan.

The project will be completed by the end of 2025. More than two million people will benefit from this hospital.

According to latest Economic Survey of Pakistan, a comparative position of the regional countries in health indicators development showed abysmal picture as infant mortality rate (IMR), per 1,000 live births, in Pakistan was 55.7, in Afghanistan 46, in India 28, Bangladesh 25, China seven and in Sri Lanka six. Although in Pakistan life expectancy increased from 66.9 years in 2017 to 67.3 years in 2019 but was still behind other countries.

The announcement regarding establishment of charity hospital has been made by Pakistan Public Aid Trust (PPAT), a non-governmental organisation run by overseas Pakistanis, to build a state of the art modern charity hospital in collaboration with Akhuwat Foundation.

Over two million people to benefit from this facility

In this regard a formal MoU signing ceremony was held between PPAT and Akhuwat Foundation. Chairman Akhuwat Foundation Dr Amjad Saqib, Chairman PPAT Nasir Abbas Tarar, Member board of directors of PPAT Furqan Aslam Mangat and other key officials and notable citizens were also present on the occasion.

Akhuwat Foundation Chairman Dr Amjad Saqib said that overseas Pakistanis were doing a commendable job in providing basic health facilities to underprivileged.

Society can only grow when people get equal opportunities and access to basic facilities like health and education, he added.

PPAT Chairman Nasir Abbas said that a 200-bed capacity hospital, with the cost of around Rs100 million will be constructed in Mandi Bahauddin. The project will be completed by the end of 2025. More than 2 million people will benefit from this hospital. The PPAT chairman appreciated the efforts of youth working for the cause of social betterment in different areas of the district.

PPAT Director Furqan Aslam Mangat said that it would be the first most modern state of the art hospital in the healthcare history of the district where all the special and general medical facilities would be provided free of cost.

He said extending quality medical services to the people of our district was one of the top priorities of the PPAT.

“We are pleased that the reputed charity organization Akhuwat that is having a great track record is helping us in terms of hospital establishment through administrative and consultative support,” he said.

According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan the national health infrastructure comprises 1,282 hospitals, 5,472 Basic Health Units, 670 Rural Health Centres, 5,743 dispensaries, 752 maternity and child health centres and 412 TB centres while the total availability of beds in these health facilities are estimated at 133,707. There are 245,987 registered doctors, 27,360 registered dentists and 116,659 registered nurses in these facilities together.

Health expenditures have increased gradually since 2011-12 - by 14.3pc - from Rs421.8 billion in 2018-19 to Rs482.3 billion in 2019-20.

Public sector expenditure on health was estimated at 1.2pc of the GDP in 2019-20 compared to 1.1pc in 2018-19.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2022