Health facilities: ‘A new hospital is needed in Multan’

Nishtar Hospital Board of Management is prepared to build a new hospital using donations from philanthropists.

MULTAN:

The Nishtar Hospital Board of Management is prepared to build a new hospital with 300 to 400 beds using donations from philanthropists in Multan, if the government allocates land for it, Board of Management Chairman Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi announced on Sunday. 

Rs51 million have been received in donations for the construction of new projects by the Students of Nishtar Hospital and College.

Addressing a fund raising dinner, Roomi, said the number of patients coming to Nishtar Medical Institute (NMI) from all provinces was increasing each day and so another hospital was necessary for Multan.



The hospital can accommodate 1,100 patients daily, and 3,000 patients visit the emergency ward alone everyday.

He said that raising the number of beds at the hospital would generate employment opportunity for doctors and paramedics.

“Apart from local donors, we are approaching international donors to provide better health facilities to the poor”, Roomi said.

He also said he would finance a bed for the new ICU, worth Rs 1.5 million, dedicated to his mother.

Speaking on the occasion, Acting Multan Division Commissioner Zahid Saleem Gondal, said the government would provide land once the NMI administration submitted a plan for building the new hospital.

Calling people from Multan Rashim Dilan-i- Multan he added that the chief minister had earmarked Rs1 billion for three projects in Multan. These included five colleges, a zoo and a number of expressways.

Gondal said he would donate a month’s salary to the fund for the NMI. Philanthropists, doctors and alumni of the NMI pledged over Rs 50 million.

NMI Principal Samee Akhtar mentioned Roomi’s ‘own a ward policy’ in his welcome address, through which donations could be made once or periodically. He said they had launched a ward for civil society members.

Every member would contribute Rs50,000 to a ward. With this donation, they would be adding X-ray facilities in outdoor ward. He added that beds with the latest technology were needed in the recently upgraded intensive care unit. Akhtar donated  Rs2 million on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2014.