KARACHI, April 7: The Edhi Foundation is donating considerable amounts to healthcare centres.

Recently it donated generously to the National Institute of Child Health. And on Monday, it was revealed that the foundation will help the Sindh Government Qatar Hospital add 50 beds to its existing capacity of 260 beds.

A spokesman for Edhi Foundation acknowledged that his organization had donated money to some healthcare centres. He, however, didn’t reveal the size of the grants released.

In response to a question, he said the Edhi Foundation planned to build a trauma centre — complete with nursing training institute — in every division. The proposed trauma centres will have 500 beds each.

Initial paper work had already been done in this regard, he said. The foundation had recently approached the authorities with a request for a plot of land where the first of these facilities could be built.

“The government is looking into the matter most sympathetically,” he said. “We hope that a piece of land will be given to us soon.”

Meanwhile, a doctor said that Edhi Foundation was already quite involved in healthcare work. “Don’t forget its ambulance service which is good.”

He claimed that if the Edhi Foundation, for one reason or the other, had to discontinue its services for even one day, Karachi’s streets would become littered with corpses. “It’s simply unforgivable that the government has not been able to do much in this regard and a charity body had to step in to fill the void.”

The doctor termed the Edhi Foundation’s step of turning its attention to the healthcare sector a welcome one. “With the tremendous trust and goodwill that the foundation has generated over the years, I hope that some good will come out from its efforts in this area too.”

The Edhi Foundation has at least 750 ambulances which are providing services to the needy all over Pakistan.