Daily Times

Despite serious challenges in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the Al-Shifa Trust has completed an eye hospital in Chakwal at a cost of Rs 250 million.

The newly built hospital is equipped with the latest facilities and has a capacity of providing treatment to 250 outdoor patients (ODP) per day, said Major General (r) Rehmat Khan, President Al-Shifa Trust. Talking to a group of journalists on Saturday, the president said that the construction site spans over 18 kanals of land while the construction has been completed in two years and the hospital will be operational very soon.

He said that the hospital has the capacity of conducting 50 surgeries per day and has four clinics along with male and female wards. The deserving people will get quality eye care services free of cost while expenses would be met through donations. Rehmat Khan said the eye hospital in Chakwal will not only help locals in getting treatment at their doorstep but help reduce the load on Rawalpindi eye hospital. The trust is planning to establish more hospitals in smaller cities to control blindness and reduce burden on the base hospital in Rawalpindi, he added.

He mentioned that the Al-Shifa Trust is already running four world-class hospitals in Sukkur, Kohat, Muzaffarabad and Rawalpindi. It has treated 8,922,174 patients during the last 28 years, conducted 691,075 surgeries and has managed 650 corneal transplants per annum. The number of patients screened in camps stands at 1,880,562 while 1,854,910 school-going children have also been examined and treated.

Secondary level hospitals are needed across the country to eradicate blindness, therefore, the management of Al-Shifa Trust decided to establish an eye hospital in the district of Chakwal to assist the blind and visually impaired coming from all kinds of backgrounds, he said. Such people have many abilities and can achieve many things despite visual impairment or blindness, but what they need is some practical assistance, he concluded.