Dialysis unit inaugurated at PEBS Eye and General Hospital

The Pakistan Eye Bank Society (PEBS) Eye and General Hospital near Nagan Chowrangi inaugurated its dialysis unit on Saturday.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, PEBS Medical Director Dr Qazi Wasiq shared that before the 1970s, there was no corneal transplant facility in Pakistan. He added that a few philanthropists, doctors and civil society activists launched a movement for this, “after which corneal transplant started in the country”.

The PEBS’s foundation was laid in 1996, he said, adding that currently, the functioning departments and units of the PEBS and General Hospital included an eye department, eye bank and cornea lab, gynaecology and obstetrics unit, dental and maxillofacial unit, cardiac and diabetic unit, laboratory, physiotherapy, and community health care services, under which they managed an eye clinic, Iftikhar Hussain teacher training programme, health care seminars and lectures, and free medical camps.

For the corneal transplant, he said, the PEBS starting importing cornea from Sri Lanka and the United States, and started transplant operations. There had been 101 corneal grafts during the last five years, he shared. “We have an international standard eye bank,” he said.

For eye service, he said, operation theatres were fully equipped and the quality of treatment was updated time to time to make it according to international standards.

The cardiac and diabetic unit offers services such as cardiac consultancy, ECHO, ECG, diabetic consultancy, general physician and a free medical camp each Monday. There many diagnostic facilities at the unit to find the body mass index, bone mineral density, blood pressure, and levels of cholesterol, uric acid and glucose in the body.

Dr Jehanzeb Mughal shed light on the PEBS’s dental and maxillofacial surgery department. “This is the first unit for dental and maxillofacial surgery in Pakistan,” he said, adding that it was conceived by the PEBS executive committee and himself in February 2006. He said it started with one dental unit purchased by the PEBS and later two units were donated by the Pakistan Refinery Limited in June 2007.

He shared that his department offered a complete range of dental and maxillofacial surgeries, including the diagnosis and management of diseases and disorders of mouth, jaws, face and neck. Scaling and polishing, restorative, endodontic, prosthetic, simple and surgical extractions, minor oral surgery and orthodontics were the services they provided, he said.

As for the price comparison, he said they charged Rs150 for diagnosis while private clinics at least charged Rs500 or above. For OPG X-ray, he said, they charged only Rs500 while rates at private clinics were Rs800 or above. For scaling and polishing, the PEBS and General Hospital charged between Rs1,500 and Rs3,000 while private clinics charged Rs3,000 or above, for restorative procedures they charged Rs1,000 to Rs2,000 while private clinics charged Rs3,000 or above, for orthodontic they started from Rs40,000 while private clinics starting rate was Rs80,000, he said.

Dr Syeda Kosar informed the ceremony about the PEBS and General Hospital’s Hamid Begum Maternity Home and Childcare Center which started in 2011. “Services at the centre are provided at highly reasonable rates,” she said. The services provided at the center include OPD, normal delivery, C-Section, instrumental delivery, laparotomy, nursery NICU, tubal ligation, shirodkar stitches and blood transfusion.

PEBS and General Hospital President Qazi Sajid Ali recalled how in front of the Spencer’s Eye Hospital in 1969, a meeting was held under a tree to discuss the idea of opening such kind of a hospital, which materialised later. He thanked the NED University architecture department’s Dr Noman Ahmed for his free services in designing and engineering affairs of the hospital.

Honorary Consul General of Mauritius Sohail Yasin Suleman was the chief guest of the inauguration ceremony.