Floating hospital: China to send ‘medical ship’ to Karachi

KARACHI: A ship equipped with medical facilities, including two operation theatres and an intensive care unit, will arrive in Karachi from China in the first week of August. 

The ship will also have an ultra sound machine, a blood bank and hundreds of doctors, surgeons and paramedical staff. All patients will be treated free of charge. According to an official of the home department, the Pakistan Navy requested China to send the ship and they are making all the security arrangements.

The ship, which is China’s first advanced hospital ship, will dock in Karachi for 20 days. It is 178 metres long and weighs 14,000 tons. “Patients with complex diseases who believed that they could not be treated in Pakistan will also be taken care of,” the official added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2013.