'Al-Shifa have treated 5m eye patients in 20 years of service'.

RAWALPINDI, 04 June, 2009 (Frontier Star) -- In Pakistan after every five seconds one person goes blind and the number of visually impaired is 5 million. Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospitals have treated over 5 million patients and operated over 500,000 in the last 20 years of its eye care service. This was stated by Lt-Gen (retd) Jahan Dad Khan, President Al-Shifa Tryst during a function held to celebrate 20 years of eye care services of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospitals, here on Thursday. After every 5 seconds a person goes blind and the number of blind and visually impaired in Pakistan is about 5 million. Of all the bounties of Allah Almighty bestowed upon mankind sight is one of those which instils imagination, inculcates perception and enables us to see and praise His manifestations abound in this world. The seeing should be grateful to the creator for giving them the gift of sight, the ability to behold and the opportunity to appreciate that what is there, but what about the sightless. Should we leave the sightless in the lightless world? observed Mr Jahan Dad Khan while talking to the board of governors and the employees of the Trust. Established on March 23, 1985, Al-Shifa Trust is a non-governmental and non-profitable organization involved in the delivery of high quality eye care services for the past 20 years. After a year its establishment it started construction of the first eye hospital on August 13, 1986 and completed in 1991 at a cost of Rs350 million on self-help basis. Spreading over 300 kanals of land, the 250-bed Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital of international standard, Rawalpindi, has been serving the ailing humanity for the last two decades. Currently the Trust is running three modern eye hospitals in Rawalpindi, Sukkur and Kohat. Within a short period of two decades of its existence, the standard of eye care at these hospitals and its wide-spread, need-based prevention of blindness programme led to the recognition of Al-Shifa Trust as WHO Collaborating Centre and Centre of Excellence for the prevention of blindness in East Mediterranean Region. WHO has recently awarded international partnership award to Al-Shifa Trust for its outstanding contributions in prevention and control of blindness. Al-Shifa Trust is the name that has given the hopes of light to these sightless in their lightless world, said Saeed Ahmed Qureshi, Vice-president Al-Shifa Trust. He said that the aims and objectives of the Trust are to provide free treatment to poor people, suffering from eye ailments, to provide mobile Ophthalmic Services (Preventive and Community Ophthalmology organized with follow-up supervised eye camps) and finally to rehabilitate the visually handicapped. Between 800 to1,000 patients visit the Al-Shifa Trust Hospital, Rawalpindi daily seeking treatment for varying eye diseases. 70 per cent of the patients are treated free, while 30 per cent are paying nominal subsidized rates. In addition to common eye problems like cataract, different subspecialty clinics have been set-up for management of various complicated eye problems like paediatric eye diseases, retinal pathology, orbit and oculoplastic disorders, corneal and lacrimal diseases and low vision management. So far about 5 million patients have been treated at the Al-Shifa Trust and about 500,000 have been operated upon, said Brig (retd) Rizwanullah Asghar, Executive Director of Al-Shifa Trust while giving details about the Operation of Al-Shifa Trust. He further said that a special facility, Al-Shifa Light House, has been established at the Rawalpindi Hospital with the help of Universal Service Funds at the initial cost of Rs25 million. This is the first time ever in Pakistan and it caters for the state of the art cyber facilities for people with incurable blindness or severely damaged vision. Similarly, Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Sukkur, a 200 bed hospital, constructed at the cost of Rs200 Million working since 23 June 2000. This hospital after its inauguration has now got fully consolidated and in view of quality of its services, almost all eye patients from the upper Sindh and southern districts of Punjab are turning up for the treatment in this hospital. The teaching wing of Al-Shifa Sukkur was inaugurated in February 2008 in order to provide post-graduate training to eye paramedics and doctors, he said. He further said that on the same scale, Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Kohat, a 200 bed hospital, constructed at the cost of Rs250 million is working since Dec 22, 2005. Patients who come from Tribal Areas and Afghanistan are treated daily. The outreach program has also been launched. In the near future, subspecialties will also be set-up on the pattern of Al-Shifa Rawalpindi. The construction of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Muzaffarabad has already started from April, 17, 2008 and will be completed by the end of 2009. This hospital will cater for people of Azad Kashmir as well as Northern Areas, he said. He further briefed that Al-Shifa Trust has also got an academic wing -Pakistan Institute Of Ophthalmology (PIO)- is the seat of learning both for doctors and para-professional like nurses, optometrists and other Ophthalmic Mid Level Personnel (OMP) Three post graduate courses for doctors (FCPS, DOMS and DCPS), subspecialty courses for paediatric, retina, cornea and oculo-plastics are run by this institute while seven courses for ophthalmic midlevel personnel are being run by National Academy of Paramedics. So far over 150 doctors and more than 600 para-professionals have completed their post-graduate training here. He said that in order to reach to the rural communities and people who have no access to the hospital, Al-Shifa Centre for Community Ophthalmology (ACCO) is responsible for conducting outreach program in the rural community. Over 3,000 outreach activities have been conducted where half million patients have been screened for various eye problems, 1.7 million Children have been screened, 10,000 voluntary workers have been trained in the field including lady health workers, teachers and social workers. Giving details about its international linkages he said, Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital has been working in close cooperation with many national and international NGOs and Governments involved in prevention and control of blindness since 1993. which includes, World Health Organization, Trust for Voluntary Organization from Pakistan- Outreach program, school screening of children, eye camps, health education, Operation EyeSight Universal, Canada- Capacity building of subspecialties at Rawalpindi (Retina, Cornea and Glaucoma) , Lions Clubs International USA- Control of blindness from diabetes at Rawalpindi and Sukkur Hospitals and training of eye paramedics, Sight Savers International UK Strengthening of cataract surgical services at Rawalpindi and Sukkur, establishment of low vision services at Rawalpindi, capacity building of eye care at district level, ORBIS International USA- Capacity building of paediatric ophthalmology at Rawalpindi and Sukkur, IDRF, Canada, Capacity building of district headquarter eye units, International Eye Foundation, USA children screening, Fred Hollows Foundation Australia Microsurgical training of district eye specialists, Embassy of Japan Laundry services of hospital, strengthening of OPD services at Rawalpindi and Sukkur, and strengthening of subspecialties at Sukkur. While giving the concluding speech Gen Jahan Said that the future projects includes establishment of two more modern eye hospitals in Quetta and Muzaffarabad, (Construction work on Muzaffarabad hospital has already been started) development of IOL and surgical consumables manufacturing facility, and a national institute of ophthalmology which will coordinate the human resource development program of all our five hospitals. Under this Plan known as Vision 2020, major emphasis has been laid upon establishing solid income-generating projects to make all components of AST self-sustainable. A mega project in the form of Al-Shifa Towers will be built by 2013 to ensure self-reliance of all of our components, he said.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)