Kharadar General Hospital is a 250-bedded ISO Certified tertiary care Hospital, equipped with modern facilities it is being run under the consistent visionary and committed supervision of MBJ Health Association, which I head as President. The Hospital is being run at subsidized and affordable normal charges on "no profit basis". Its mission is to provide ethical and high quality medical and social services with dignity and respect.
The Hospital has a dedicated Management team, highly experienced and foreign qualified Physicians, Surgeons and Specialists, Doctors, Paramedics, Nurses and other supporting staff members. A Managing Committee of professionals and doctors manage the Hospital. The Hospital expenses are heavily subsidized through donations and contributions made by philanthropists and leading businessmen and industrialists.
Kharadar General Hospital was established in 1918, offering domiciliary with health services and has completed 100 years of quality services this year. In the year 1936, a 50-bedded Maternity Home was established in the Hospital (previously known as Cement Hospital) and other services and facilities kept on growing slowly until the seventies.
In the year 1978, I was associated with the Hospital as Honorary General Secretary of the Managing Committee and later on as President in 1985. When I started working for the Hospital in 1980, it was in a dilapidated condition. I participated fully in all aspects of policy, management, planning and development of the Hospital.
The old building, built in 1936 and which started Maternity Home services in 1940, was renovated. As an ambitious person, I decided to construct a new building on an area of 25,000 sq. ft., but the Hospital had no funds. As President of Karachi Stock Exchange at that time, I went door to door to raise funds and collected Rs 2.2 Million whereas the requirement of funds as estimated by an honorary architect was Rs 8 Million. However, with the help of my Managing Committee, I started construction work. My own staff was involved in supervising construction and designing.
The construction could have stopped without the assistance of two of my friends, the late Mohsin Siddiqui (Pakland Cement) and Mr. Sultan Mowjee (Razzak Steels) who gave me cement and iron and steel on very concessional rates and also on credit. Begum Nusrat Bhutto - the then Health Minister in the cabinet of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, laid the foundation of the new modern building in March, 1989.
The new building was completed in 1991 at a cost of over Rs 8 Million. By the grace of Allah, the ground floor of the building with 100 beds was renovated. Labor Rooms and other facilities were inaugurated in 1991 by my father, the late JanMohammed Dawood - an eminent lawyer of Pakistan. The construction of one more floor was completed in the year 2000, enhancing medical/surgical facilities by another 100 beds.
The President's niece established the Farhat Rasheed Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Center Hospital, where 30,000 patients are catered annually. We acknowledge the untiring and devoted services of Prof. A. Ghaffar Billoo as Chairman of the Hospital Management Committee for the last 25 years.
The Hospital has progressed rapidly and has turned out to be one of the busiest Maternity Units of the city, catering to nearly 7,000 deliveries per annum. The Hospital outdoor services comprise of about 500,000 outdoor patients per annum besides providing Lab Tests, X-rays / ultrasounds, physiotherapy services to over 300,000 patients annually and has served millions of underprivileged people with quality health at affordable rates.
After upgrading the Hospital and establishment of all the departments, I realized the need to establish a School of Nursing, which not only provides opportunity to the needy young boys and girls to get an education but also serves as a source of income.
With the help of counterpart nursing experts, we established the Nursing School in 2005 which offers a Diploma in General Nursing/Midwifery, without charging any tuition fee and in fact paying stipends to students to meet transportation costs. As of now, we have 600 students enrolled. We established a Nursing Block at 12,000 sq. feet to accommodate more students and started a Masters program (MSc.N), with approval of Pakistan Nursing Council.
I do realize that no Institution can be run unless they have sufficient funds to meet the expenses. By the Grace of Allah, we have been maintaining a substantial Endowment Fund for a long time to help run the Hospital, as "men may come and men may go but institutions should go on forever". We have a Patient Welfare Department which caters to the needy patients by offering free services, in spite of the fact that our rates are quite low and affordable as the Hospital policy is not to turn back any needy patient, irrespective of his/her caste, creed and religion.
Without the help and support of the Managing Committee, Office Bearers and the Management, we could not have achieved the goal. I acknowledge all those who have contributed to the prosperity and progress of the Hospital, particularly Prof. A. Ghaffar Billoo, our Ex-Chief Executive Officer Ms. Hamda Baig, present CEO Dr. Khalid Iqbal, Consultants, Doctors, Nurses, Technicians and the devoted staff of the Hospital.
May Allah give us courage to work further for the service to humanity, to the best of our capabilities.
Comments
Comments are closed.