Maj-Gen (Retd) Rehmat Khan, president Al Shifa Trust, has said that by 2050 the population will be doubled and so the number of eye patients will also be increasing accordingly. Updating media persons about AST services,
Gen Rehmat said that only the private sector would not be able to handle the situation.
It has been revealed by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in it’s 7th Population and Housing Census-2023 that if the growing rate of 2.55 continues, Pakistan’s population will be doubled by 2050 reaching to approximately 500 million.
Expressing concern over the growing eye diseases in Pakistani he has suggested to upgrade the existing facilities and building state-run eye clinics at every basic health unit so as to provide primery eye treatment to patients who cannot afford costly private facilities,at the door steps of the poor patients.
Al Shifa Trust has treated 29 million patients in the last 30 years, Al Shifa Trust performs 9,000 surgeries monthly at it’s Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Kohat, Muzaffarabad, Sukkar and Gilgit hospital. He said that under construction GB hospital is providing services to the public. Al Shifa Trust treats 80 percent patients free of cost.
Through out the year school screening, free eye camps, awareness and Primary Eye Care sessions, are arranged in far flung areas of the country.
He said that only private sector cannot cope with the challenge of increase in eye patients, it’s time to mobilize resources at the Govt level. Al Shifa can train doctors and paramedics at it’s school of ophthalmology, he offered.
