We stand on our own feet without any financial crutches and provide welfare assistance worth 500Million rupees to needy patients annually
Knowledge is key to development. Government has
to change its priorities – Prof. Atta Ur Rehman
Liaquat National Hospital’s 8th Annual Symposium
KARACHI: Liaquat National Hospital made a humble beginning seventy years ago and its foundation was laid by Wajid Ali Shah and his colleagues with a 50-bed facility. Over the years it has made tremendous progress in various fields and today fifteen hundred undergraduates and five hundred postgraduates are enrolled in various institutions affiliated with it. This was stated by Prof.Salman Faridi Medical Director of LNH while speaking in the inaugural session of the 8th LNH Symposium held recently. Today it has seven hundred fifty beds which includes one hundred seventy critical care beds. Another multistory building is under construction which will further increase the bed strength of this healthcare facility, he remarked.
Prof. Atta Ur Rehman, Prf. Salman Faridi, Prof. Aziz Abdullah and Dr Saleha Shahzad speaking at the inaugural session of Liaquat National Hospital’s 8th symposium held recently.
Speaking about the healthcare services provided by the institution he pointed out that apart form over seventy-five thousand admissions, millions of patients are treated and examined in emergency and Out Patients Departments in various disciplines of medicine at the hospital campus. The first symposium was organized in 1995 and we renew our pledge of maturity today. We had one hundred twenty pre-conference workshops, over seventy scientific sessions are planned where large number of oral and poster presentations will be made by speakers from medical and allied health sciences. We also have an outreach primary healthcare programme. Apart from medical and dental college, we also have College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, College of Physiotherapy, College of Medical Technologists. We do not expect any financial grant from the government and we have no community backing as well. We stand on our own feet without any financial crutches. We also provide social welfare worth five hundred million rupees annually to the needy patients.
Dr. Salman Faridi said that we believe access to good healthcare is a birth right and how do nation’s take care of their poor matters a lot. At Liaquat National Hospital we ensure that the same standard of care is provided to everyone. It is the need which determines the standard of care and not the money, he added. We need to overcome poverty. Many deserving students get scholarships. Two thousand employees of the hospital have been provided Motor Cycles so that they come in time.
We have also established a Day Care Centre so that the female employees can bring their children here where they are looked after. Children of the poor employees are provided free uniforms, they are trained in various skills like beauty parlor, technical skills so that they can become earning members of the family. Those students who get admission to medical college, their 90% of fee is waived off. Financial assistance for further education is also provided to the deserving children of LNH employees. Those who get admission to other professional colleges, they also get 50-90% financial assistance. Every help and assistance is provided to the employees to improve their qualifications. Economy meals for all the employees is also arranged. We do our best to look after the welfare of our employees. At times we do face some challenges and we are looking at it how to respond to these challenges, he remarked.
Eminent Scientist and former Federal Minister and former Chairman of the Higher Education Commission Prof. Atta Ur Rehman was the chief guest at the inaugural session. In his speech, he pointed out that Knowledge is the key to development. When he joined the Government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, I asked the Finance Minister for adequate funding for Science & Technology, higher education. When he asked me from where these funds will come, I told him that just keep aside the cost of one F16 and you will have enough finances. I managed to have 600% increase in the budget of science and technology and higher education. It resulted in Pakistan making tremendous progress in Research Ranking and in some fields we were far ahead of India in comparison with per capita income and population.
Pakistani researchers were able to produce more research papers as per Web of Science while looking at Scopus another important database, we were at Par with India. Prof. Atta Ur Rehman said that it was the quality of faculty which makes a good university. Government has to change its priorities. We sent thousands of postgraduates overseas for higher education and training. The salary of faculty members in university was four times that of a Federal Minister. They also got one thousand dollars’ research grants. Students and faculty in universities were provided enabling environment. Our genes, he further stated, are responsible for diseases. Now personalized medicine is being developed. Stem cells are being used to delay aging. Developments in biotechnology will slow down the process of aging and enhance life span. Human brain, he stated has one hundred billion neurons and each of them is connected with other ten thousand neurons. Exciting developments are expected in the days to come in the field of science and technology, he remarked.
