Background and inception: Effective healthcare provision to all in Pakistan is a severely neglected area. Healthcare provided by the State is at the bare minimum. This in effect, leads to private healthcare services filling in the gap. The private sector offers an array of medical services; the ones which provide quality healthcare come at an exorbitant price which is beyond the reach of the common man. Pakistan does not have a national health insurance system either therefore this leaves the impoverished patients in need of quality healthcare with no hope at all.
In an effort to fill in this gap in healthcare provision a group of dedicated doctors, philanthropists and entrepreneurs came forward to tackle this immense challenge that the people of Pakistan were facing. They joined hands to commence the operations of The Indus Hospital (TIH) in 2007, TIH serves to be the country's first private tertiary care hospital to provide absolutely free of cost quality healthcare services to all. TIH started as a 150 bed, state of the art, paperless, tertiary healthcare facility in Karachi and has now expanded to a health network with healthcare facilities across the country. Indus Hospital's network has healthcare facilities in Karachi, Lahore, Muzzafargarh, Badin and Bhong (Rahim Yar Khan). Since its inception, The Indus Hospital and its network of healthcare centers have provided free of cost quality healthcare to millions of under-served patients all across Pakistan. Now The Indus Hospital's main campus in Korangi, Karachi is on its way to expanding to a 1800+ bed facility aiming to serve millions more with greater efficiency and quality, once the expansion is completed The Indus Hospital will become the largest hospital in the region.
Key features: The Indus Hospital has some of the most able and renowned physicians and surgeons as part of its faculty and staff. It also is one of the first hospitals in Pakistan that is paperless, therefore all medical records are available online, this leads to a comprehensive profiling of each patient and contributes towards the cost savings per patient. The Indus Hospital also houses the first centralized regional blood center of Pakistan referred to as The Indus Hospital Blood Centre (TIHBC). The Blood Center aims to mobilise the nation towards donating blood voluntarily on a regular basis in order to provide it to those who need it the most. It provides blood to many of the hospitals throughout Pakistan through an integrated online blood ordering system.
The Indus Hospital also has its own research center, known as Indus Hospital Research Center (IHRC). (IHRC) aims to provide contextualized solutions for its patient population and helps improve their quality of lives. The research center runs many preventive health programmes at the Indus Hospital. Currently it is involved in implementing a large scale programmes to tackle MDR-Tuberculosis and Malaria. Another milestone achieved by the Indus Hospital was the establishment of Indus Physical Rehabilitation Centre. The present set-up at Indus Hospital, Karachi, manufactures and fits about 2000-2500 devices per year with assessment, counselling and training of physically disabled people to make optimal use of these devices. These initiatives and endeavours of the Indus Hospital make it one a kind healthcare concept in Pakistan. In order to serve maximum number of patients The Indus Hospital continually strives towards expanding its services and facilities in order to benefit those with dire needs.
Play your part: The Indus Hospital is funded entirely through the zakat and donations received by the people of our Nation. 96% of the zakat and donation received by The Indus Hospital comes from within Pakistan. Out of the 96% of the zakat received, 80% is received from the people of Karachi. Hence this is a hospital that is run by the people of Pakistan for the people of our country therefore the onus is upon each one of us to come forward and play their part in helping the Indus Hospital in making free of cost quality healthcare a reality for all in Pakistan.
(Sahar Suleman is Assistant Manager Publications Communication and resource generation The Indus Hospital)