Zubair Qureshi
Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with four private hospitals— Bahria Hospital, Indus Hospital Karachi, Mukhtar A Shekih Hospital Multan and National Hospital and Medical Centre, Lahore—in first-ever public private partnership for conducting cochlear implant surgeries of hearing impaired children who cannot otherwise afford the expenses.
MoU signing ceremony held at the PBM head office here Tuesday and a separate MoU was signed with each hospital.
Deputy Managing Director Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal Mobashir Hasan represented the PBM at the signing ceremony. He highlighted the projects undertaken by the Managing Director Aon Abbas Buppi for providing the cochlear Implants to the deserving children.
He said PBM Initiated assistance for hearing-impairing children in October 2019 and up to now twelve children have been provided the service.
The initiative has been carried out successfully particularly with generous involvement and support of Philanthropists, he said.
PBM is addressing multifarious issues associated with poverty eradication, he said.
Director Medical PBM Dr Javed Iqbal and representatives of the hospitals inked the MoU on behalf of their respective hospitals.
A cochlear implant, costs over Rs 1.5 million. According to the agreement, PBM will pay Rs1 million for each cochlear implant surgery while rest Rs500,000 plus will be paid by the respective hospitals.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Javed Iqbal said PBM had made the whole process transparent and a deserving person can apply for cochlear implant surgery online. So far, 534 families have applied for conducting their cochlear implants surgeries and their operation would be conducted within next six months on the first come first serve basis.
He said PBM provided treatment facilities to the deserving patients of deadly diseases from Rs 600,000 to Rs 1 million. PBM has already helped conducting cochlear implant surgeries of 25 deserving children in Capital Development Authority (CDA) hospital recently.
