IHN aims to set up 500 primary healthcare clinics- Prof Abdul Bari

KARACHI: Inauguration of the second branch of the Ehad Medical Center was held recently in Bahadurabad, Karachi. Prof Dr Abdul Bari Khan, Chief Executive Officer of the Indus Health Network (IHN) was invited as Chief Guest. Renowned physicians and health experts, including Prof Dr Abdul Basit, Diabetologist and Consultant and Advisor of the Ehad Medical Center,  Prof Dr Zaman Shaikh, Diabetologist, Dr Mehfooz Alam, Syed Yasir Hashmi, GM Operations, Ehad Medical Center, Dr Hooria Chaudhry and others, were also present on occasion and spoke at the inauguration.

Prof Dr Abdul Bari Khan noted that both public and private sector facilities were failing to provide quality healthcare services to the people of Pakistan. "Private hospitals are charging a lot, but except for a few, most private hospitals are not meeting the healthcare needs of people. Everybody knows about the service provided by government hospitals. In these circumstances, we have planned to establish 500 primary healthcare clinics in the country with a focus on primary healthcare and diabetes,” said Dr Abdul Bari.

Dr Abdul Bari lamented that the government was not doing enough to meet the healthcare needs of the people of Pakistan. The ‘filthy rich’ travel abroad to seek medical treatment while the few who couldn’t afford to avail expensive health services visit private hospitals. On the flip side, a vast majority of Pakistanis were not receiving proper treatment in public and most of the private health facilities in the country.

“Unfortunately, the middle, lower-middle, and poor segments of Pakistani society have no place to avail proper medical treatment despite spending a major portion of their monthly income on it. Except for a few, most of the private hospitals are busy looting patients while public hospitals are overburdened and cannot provide proper healthcare services to the people.”

He hoped that with the establishment of primary healthcare clinics and medical centers like Ehad, people would be able to avail quality medical consultation, effective and genuine medication, and authentic diagnostic services.

He further deplored that 90% of the blood banks were providing “unscreened and tainted blood” to the people. Blood transfusion services were responsible for the spread of lethal diseases instead of curing them. “Instead of getting cured and healed, our children and people are contracting lethal infectious diseases through tainted blood, but nobody is looking into this serious issue,” he observed.

Pledging to assist the Ehad Medical Center network in the provision of quality medical services to people, Prof Dr Abdul Bari said that the Indus Hospital Network had the highest number of clinical pharmacists compared to any other health facility in Pakistan and vowed to follow the structure of Ehad at their planned primary healthcare clinics in the country.

Prof Dr Abdul Basit, said that he had been planning to establish such clinics for the last 15 to 20 years where all consultation and treatment facilities were available under one roof. He further added that they were planning to establish 3,000 such clinics throughout the country as per their plan to standardize diabetes care in Pakistan.

“At Ehad, we are providing quality consultation services, diagnostics, telemedicine, education on diet and lifestyle, obesity management as well as world-class pharmacy services,” said Prof Abdul Basit adding that global practices and advancements in the various fields of healthcare are being followed at the Ehad Medical Center.

Prof Zaman Shaikh said it was heartening to learn that the health fraternity had stopped looking towards the government for the provision of healthcare facilities for the people, and now they had joined hands to resolve the healthcare issues of the masses on self-help basis.

“Despite our repeated suggestions and recommendations for the establishment of primary healthcare facilities and diabetes clinics at district levels, authorities have been unmoved for the past several decades, but now doctors and physicians have joined hands, which is a good omen for the people of Pakistan.”

He further added that diabetes is an expensive disease and never abandons a person until his or her last breath.

Syed Yasir Hashmi, shed light on the Ehad Medical Center's purpose of existence, which is to improve primary health care facilities in Pakistan with a standardized medication management system, specialized clinics, state-of-the-art community pharmacies, reputable labs, telemedicine, etc. He also emphasized the importance of an authentic supply chain of medication and elaborated on the success of Ehad Healthcare.

Dr Hooria Chaudhry spoke about the availability of telemedicine facilities at the Ehad Medical Center through which patients could consult doctors across Pakistan as well as developed countries of the world, including the US, Europe, Turkey, and the Middle East.