POB charitable trust’s first satellite centre starts functioning in Dhoraji

The first satellite centre of the Prevention of Blindness (POB) Trust Charitable Eye Hospital has started functioning in the Dhoraji area after it was formally inaugurated by officials of POB Trust and Adamajee Foundation earlier this week.

“With the help of Adamjee Foundation, the POB Trust launched its second center (Adamjee unit) in the Dhoraji area of the city on Monday. The new satellite centre of the POB Trust Eye Hospital also started functioning when over a hundred patients visited the health facility on the first day,” said Dr Misbahul Aziz, chairman of the POB Trust, while talking to journalists.

The Prevention of Blindness Trust is running an eye hospital in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, where hundreds of patients are treated on a daily basis while around 50 to 60 surgeries of cataract, glaucoma and other sophisticated procedures of retina and others are performed on a daily basis.

Dr Misbahul Aziz said seeing the success of the POB trust in treatment of eye-related illnesses, the Adamjee Foundation approached them and offered them to run their hospital in the Dhoraji area, whose expenses would also be borne by the foundation while the POB Trust would run the hospital with its doctors, eye surgeons, technicians and administrative staff.

“Initially, we have posted three doctors, who are fully trained specialists and ophthalmologists. We are planning to conduct at least 250 OPDs at the new unit on a daily basis,” he said, adding that cataract, glaucoma surgeries and some minor procedures would also be carried out the centre initially.

“This new unit or the POB’s Satellite Center in Dhoraji area would prove to be blessing for the area people, as earlier they used to go to Gulistan-e-Jauhar for eye consultation and surgeries. As this centre starts functioning, we are planning to start more complicated surgeries in this unit too.”

Eminent ophthalmologist and General Secretary POB Trust Dr Shayan Shadmani said they were planning to establish such hospitals in all six districts of the city, while very soon they would expand their services to other cities of the province too.

A project of the Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), the POB Trust has so far spent approximately $60 million on its projects of free eye care services involving 160,000 cataract surgeries of patients in 20 countries.

It has been working in many areas of free eye camps in Pakistan, holding free eye camps in poor countries, providing higher surgical training to doctors, providing school eye care services, providing emergency relief during natural calamities, holding eye camps at prisons, running rehabilitation centers and holding public awareness campaigns.