Free bone marrow transplant facility opens at Gambat

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto says he hopes to extend free healthcare across Pakistan

GAMBAT:

People will be able to access free of cost bone marrow transplant facility at Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), which is already offering liver transplant services.

“Our vision is providing free healthcare across Pakistan,” Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said inaugurating the Bone Marrow Transplant Institute at Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) on Friday.

Expressing joy over the advancement in Sindh’s public healthcare sector, Chairman Bilawal announced that the bone marrow transplant treatment at GIMS is 100% free.

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He said that GIMS offers free treatment for liver, kidney, bone marrow and cancer.

The bone marrow transplant procedure will leave a great impact on the lives of people seeking treatment for several diseases such as thalassemia.

He also said 100 % free cancer treatment, and world-class facilities are offered at Gambat.

The PPP chairman further said that with the rise of car accidents, a rapid response emergency facility has also been launched. The aim is to open such centres in other cities as well so those suffering severe medical injuries from fires and accidents can be treated in the best possible way. “Gambat, from today, is the medical capital of Pakistan.”

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"I challenge all the provincial governments of the country to build a hospital-like GIMS, where free treatment for liver, kidney, bone marrow and cancer is provided,” he added.

Bilawal said that Sindh has broken the national record by providing 550 free liver transplants. Amongst these, 52% people were from Sindh, 29% were from Punjab, 15% were from Balochistan, and 3% were from K-P.

He said that Punjab has a liver and kidney institute that performs transplants, but the number of people from Punjab that Gambat treated is more than the overall patients their hospital admitted.

“The vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was to improve the healthcare system of the nation, and save the lives of elders. This is our vision of Pakistan,” the PPP leader added. “We want healthcare to be completely free so no one can say they couldn’t get treated due to lack of finances. To reach our goal, we have made a large number of investments, especially for tertiary care hospitals.”

Bilawal said the PPP government had introduced Waseela-e-Sehat Card to help the poverty ridden. When Mian Nawaz Sharif came, he changed the name to PM Health Card, now PTI calls it the Sehat Insaaf card.

“But you need a brain to even copy a bright idea (naqal key liay bhi aqal chahiey hay),” he also said. “The way they are running our card is wrong. We offered it to the poor - their card offers a subsidy of Rs600,000 to private hospitals.”

Chairman Bilawal stated that the budget of only three institutes set up by the Sindh government, GIMS, SIUT and NICVD, is more than the budget of the entire Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Health Card."

He further said that the selected government can run the healthcare sector better if some of this money is given to the poor, and the rest is utilised in the budget of government hospitals. Their current health card is a theft of the health budget as this money will be given to private insurance companies

“If you utilise your finances properly, you will also be able to make world class hospitals like GIMS,” said PPP chairman. “Our vision is to bring free treatment to the homes of people. If we can provide free cancer, liver, and kidney transplant to Sindh, we can take this initiative to the rest of Pakistan too.”