Ophthalmology: Al-Shifa Eye Trust Hospital in AJK becomes operational

MUZAFFARABAD:

An eye hospital, the first of its kind has become operational in Azad Kashmir. The state-of-the-art hospital, established by Al-Shifa Eye Trust in Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad Kashmir, will provide latest treatment facilities to the people of AJK. It is the fourth eye-care facility opened by the trust in Pakistan, along with an under construction hospital in Quetta.

“The hospital started functioning on Tuesday and it will endow the masses with access to modern eye treatment,” said Col (retd) Mushtaq Ahmed, Executive Director of the hospital.

The inaugural ceremony was attended largely by the residents of the adjacent Kashmiri refugee camp in Ambore and nearby areas.

Work on the 200-bed hospital, built at a cost of Rs150 million, started three years ago.

“Within 10 years, it will become a centre of excellence in the region and provide postgraduate training to doctors and facilities for applied research to prevent blindness. The hospital will also provide eye care to five million people as it will serve as a base hospital for multiple vision centres in remote areas of AJK and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P),” he said.

The hospital, which can manage around 800 eye patients and undertake 100 operations daily, “Is equipped with latest facilities including laser technology care for the provision of modern ophthalmologic care,” Ahmed said.

He said the hospital was a dream of the founding chairperson of the Trust Lt-Gen Jahandad Khan (late), who had started Al-Shifa Trust with only Rs600,000.

He said the hospital will be provided with qualified ophthalmologists and over 100 paramedics.

Ahmed added that the masses of AJK and nearby villages and towns of K-P will benefit from the facility as well because instead of having to go to Islamabad and Rawalpindi for surgeries and other treatment, they now have this facility at their doorstep.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2011.