Healthcare for Everyone: These Are the 5 Best Free Hospitals in Pakistan

Healthcare has been a growing issue for Pakistan as diseases continue to grow alongside an ever-increasing population. Getting good health services in Pakistan has always been an expensive idea. The country also lacks a free national health service and while there are discounted government run hospitals, most of them have infectious environment and poor management which is a recipe for the worst possible health care.

The other choices are either to go for expensive treatments in private hospitals or to get medical care from any of the few charitable medical organisations in Pakistan.

These heathcare NGOs have been offering inspirational and premium services for discounted or no money at all. Today, we list some of the best free healthcare service providers in Pakistan:

Indus Hospital

This hospital was built with a unique idea and a near-impossible target. However, donors and caring medical professionals have made the dream of “best possible healthcare for everyone” a reality.

The hospital’s beginning can be traced back to 2005 when a group of doctors, philanthropists and businessmen joined hands to start a free medical institution in Karachi’s densely populated area of Korangi. The hospital was established in 2007, and continues to offer 100% free treatment to everyone.

The hospital has a capacity 150 beds and is spread across 20 acres of land. Over a million patients have been treated so far and hundreds of thousands come for treatment every year, with the number growing every year.

International doctors visit the hospital to offer their services for free while the foundation does its level best to get the latest of machines while still maintaining its free services for everyone.

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital

Since this cancer hospital’s announcement in 1994, the medical organisation and research institute has become a household name in Pakistan and very popular one in the rest of the world. Celebrities from Pakistan and abroad get together for the support of the free cancer hospitals under the Shaukat Khanum cancer institute’s name.

What started as an impossible mission considering the status of Pakistan as a third world country, the first hospital was successfully established in 1994 in Lahore, followed by another one in Peshawar in 2015. The third cancer hospital is being established in Karachi. Shaukat Khanum Hospital was one of the first of its kind in the country which has led several others to follow suit and establish more donor funded hospitals in the country,

It has been reported that since the hospital’s establishment, over one million chemotherapy and radiation treatments have been given to cancer patients. Over 24 billion rupees, collected from the donors, have been used and about 75 percent of the patients have received free cancer treatment or financial support.

Considering the high number of cancer patients in the country, the NGO has established facilities all across the country which select patients based on their probability of the disease, the stage of cancer, chances of survival and the financial situation of the patient.

SIUT (Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation)

SIUT is also a leading medical institute in the country which offers free or discounted treatment to thousands of patients each year. The organisation focuses on kidney diseases and organ transplantation. It is also the largest kidney disease center in Pakistan.

The institute became autonomous in 1991 and started treating 10-12 transplants every week. Since then the hospital has achieved several milestones including the first successful liver transplant in Pakistan and first harvested cadaver transplant.

SIUT has also established other institutes and offers its services in other medical facilities. In 2004, a child unit was also opened by SIUT. The institute now takes care of nearly one million patients every single year.

LRBT (Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust) Eye-Care Institute

LRBT came to being in 1984 and since then has been trying to save people from blindness free of cost.

It started with the Badin district but now holds a network of 18 eye hospitals and 55 clinics across Pakistan. The network is such well planned one that LRBT claims no one is more than 3 hours away from an LRBT facility.

During the past 32 years, 34 million patients have been treated and over 3.4 million surgeries have been performed. It has helped decrease the prevalence of blindness in Pakistan by about 50 percent, not a small achievement in any manner.

In 2015-16 alone, LRBT treated 2.9 million patients in OPD and performed over 260,000 surgeries. It is now the largest provider of eye-care services in Pakistan. The NGO aims to help everyone see the colors of life whether they can afford it or not.

Bait-ul-Sukoon

While the organisation has bee around for long, it was in 2009 that it got its first purpose built building. The new building was established on 23,000 square feet of land and can admit 45  patients.

Since its start, the NGO has helped treat over 6,000 patients and has provided over 5,400 free chemotherapy and radiation treatments. During the process, all boarding, lodging and treatment costs were covered by the institution.

The institute focuses on offering free cancer treatment to the people of Karachi.

Did we miss out any notable mentions? Let us know in the comments below about other hospitals that provide their services for free and help ease Pakistan’s medical requirements.