Successful medical treatment of more than 4 Million People todate?????Approximately more than 0.35 million successful operations todate????? Approximately 1300 patients treated on a daily basis?????More than 120 doctors trained/grauated to alleviate the sufferings of the blind ????? More than 0.3 million operations carried out during out reach progam/eye camps????? More than 1.5 million children successfully screened todate
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News Letters

1. Prime Minister inaugurates the National Academy of Paramedics

2. Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Quetta: MoU signed with Govt. of Balochistan

3. Board of Trustees Meeting

4. Re-invigoration of management structure

?• Decentralization
?• Induction of new management
?• Service structure made more attractive

5. Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi

  • Children Eye Complex Upgraded
  • Retina department to be consolidated as Center of Excellence

6. Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Sukkur

  • Subspecialty Development taking shape

  • Human Resource Development

7. Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Kohat

?• Consolidation of Secondary Eye Care Facilities
?• Community Program expanded
?• Paramedic Training started


8. Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology

  • Two Professors of Ophthalmology
  • Post-graduate training gets further boost
  • Training of the Foreign Doctors
  • New batch of Residents join PIO
  • New Academic Year of NAP brings in a rich national talent


9. ACCO Department

?• Re-invigoration of ACCO
?• Free Eye Camps ; Strategy Revised to improve output
?• Children Screening Program gets special boost

10. INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

  • ORBIS Project successfully completed
  • OEU Canada and Al-Shifa launch five year project for capacity building


11. Miscellaneous

  • President Al-Shifa tours North America for Fund-raising
  • YFA Internship Program
  • Staff News

12. Patient Column

13.Hospital Progress

14.Important Coming Events At Al-shifa

15. Appeal

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Prime Minister inaugurates the National Academy of Paramedics
Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Shaukat Aziz inaugurated Al-Shifa-LIONS National Academy of Paramedics on 26 April, 2006. Prime Minister visited the hospital and National Academy of Paramedics. He evinced keen interest in the wide spread activities of Al-Shifa Trust. Prime Minister said ?“I am happy to be here today at such a center of excellence, where not only the best facilities for eye care are available, but above all there is a zeal for attaining excellence. Pakistan is proud of such a facility?”. On this occasion Prime Minister also distributed medals and awards for the outstanding staff of Al-Shifa Trust. He announced Rs. 10 million for development of the National Academy of Paramedics.

Our readers may recall that this Academy has been a joint venture of LIONS Clubs International and Al-Shifa Trust. Federal Minister for Tourism, Mrs. Nilofar Bakhtiar, who has the singular honor of being the first ever international women Director of LIONS, was also present on the occasion. President Al-Shifa while welcoming the Prime Minister, highlighted the importance of skilled manpower in the field of Ophthalmic Para-Professionals and lauded the efforts of LIONS in this regard.

MoU signed for Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Quetta
A MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was signed between the Chief Secretary Balochistan Mr. K.B. Rind and President Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospitals Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Jahan Dad Khan on 30th July. According to the agreement the Balochistan Government has granted free prime land of eight (8) acres to the Al-Shifa Trust for the construction of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital at Quetta.

Chief Secretary Balochistan Mr. K.B Rind while giving details about the land said that the prime land is located at Al-Barooni Road near Bolan Medical College. President Al-Shifa Trust, Lt. Gen.(Retd.) Jahan Dad Khan said ?“The planning and mobilization will be completed by March 2007 and the project will be commissioned by the middle of 2009?”. ?“This hospital will cost about Rs.250 million?” said Mr. Saeed Qureshi, Vice President of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital. Lt. Gen. (Retd.) .Jahan Dad Khan said that the hospital will be on the same standard as Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi, which is the mother Hospital. ?“In addition to Balochistan, the hospital will also provide its services to the southern part of Afghanistan as well?”.

Board of Trustees Meeting

Annual Board of Trustees Meeting was held at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Rawalpindi on 26th June. The main agenda of the meeting was to approve the annual budget for the year 2006-2007 and future development strategy.


1. President while presenting annual progress of the various components of the Trust informed that Kohat Hospital has been commissioned and upgrading of our hospitals at Rawalpindi and Sukkur are progressing according to the targets set for year 2005-2006. He informed that areas where Al-Shifa needs greater focus are development of IT and Research.


2. President also briefed the Trustees on our Future 20 years Strategic Plan with following salient features: -

a. Establishment of Quetta and Muzaffarabad Hospitals by 2010
b. Development of an apex higher education complex by the name of National Institute of Ophthalmology as regulatory and monitoring body by 2011.
c. Multiple Vision Centers around 5 base hospitals, which will provide a secondary level of eye care by 2015.
d. Development of Research and IT Department for which Al-Shifa is already in contact with experts for technical support.

3. After the progress report by President of the Trust, Vice President and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Al-Shifa presented the budget for approval. The Highlights of the Annual Budget of Al-Shifa Trust as presented for approval are as follows: -


a. Total expenditure has been estimated to be Rs. 324.162 million which includes revenue expenditure of Rs. 193.834 million, and capital expenditure of Rs. 130.328 million.
b. Total Receipts comes out to be Rs. 294.089 million including internal receipts of Rs. 167.279 million and external receipts of Rs. 126.810 million.
c. Overall there will be a budget deficit of Three Crore Rs. (Rs. 30.073 million)
d. Mr. Qureshi drew the attention of the house towards the fact that financial autonomy ratio is showing downward trend. It must be closely watched.

4. President proposed the names of two additional trustees. He informed the house that both of them have long association with Al-Shifa and they have made significant contributions in their individual capacities. Both the names were unanimously approved as Trustees by the Board. The newly inducted trustees are as follows: -
i. Lt. Gen.(Retired) Muhammad Zubair
ii. Group Captain (Retired) Imtiaz Ali Khan


5. In view of accelerated expansion and upgrading process, the Trustees volunteered to take on the different responsibilities related to their specialized field of interest.

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Re-invigoration of management structure
?• Decentralization: Recently a thorough internal evaluation was conducted for all the major components of the Trust. As a result, in order to re-invigorate, special measures were taken. All Executive Directors of Rawalpindi, Sukkur and Kohat Hospitals and other departmental heads have been delegated full authority to manage their respective areas. The Trust Secretariat which includes offices of the President, Vice President and Secretary General has been moved out of the Al-Shifa Rawalpindi hospital building into PIO. The Trust Secretariat will provide guidance and monitor the working of all the components of the Trust.
?• Induction of new management:In order to cope with the fast development of various components of Al-Shifa Trust, top management reshuffle has been made with younger and more innovative senior executives including Executive Directors, Dir Finance, Gen Manager Procurement, Secretary Gen of PIO and Director of Outreach Department.
?• Service structure made more attractive: The salary package of all the main cadres of the hospital has been revised to make it more competitive and to encourage fresh talent. More incentives have been announced in addition to those already existing like old age benefit, medical coverage, pick and drop facilities, annual increment, promotion on the basis of merit and qualification, opportunities for training abroad etc.
Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi
?• Children Eye Complex Upgraded. With support from ORBIS International, the capacity of pediatric department has increased manifold. Additional infrastructure, modern equipment and increased number of trained professionals in pediatric ophthalmology have been the major factors. Previously, the load was such that the child patients had to wait for up to two months for consultation or surgery. Now, the waiting time is considerably reduced and consultation is available throughout the week days as compared to 3 days per week in the past.
?• Department of Retina has emerged as one of the leading center for control of diabetes related blindness. Due to availability of highly qualified faculty members and advanced equipment, patients are referred from all over the country and abroad. We have undertaken further expansion of the Retina Department through development of additional infrastructure and equipment with the help of OEU to meet the growing need of the patients.
Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Sukkur
Human Resource Development:
?• Five doctors from Sukkur are about to complete their post-graduation training at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi. With these qualified specialists, our Sukkur hospital will gradually become a center of excellence in the region.
?• As a part of continuous professional development program, Sukkur hospital is now running two bi-weekly programs to refresh the knowledge and skills of doctors and paramedics from within and outside the hospital. The programs are being run by one senior doctor and Chief Nurse.
o Subspecialty Development taking shape. Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Sukkur is gradually establishing itself as a leading eye care institute of the area. With establishment of subspecialties, like cornea, glaucoma, retina and low vision, there is now a rise in the number of referred patients from all over. With sophisticated equipment and manpower, the Glaucoma Department supported by Embassy of Japan is now helping many patients who had no access to such treatment before. Similarly Diabetes Prevention Program is in full swing. With arrival of sophisticated equipment with the help of LIONS Clubs, the surgical and laser treatment of advanced diabetes has now become a reality.
Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Kohat
o Consolidation of Secondary Eye Care Facilities: With such a sprawling facility fully operational now, patients are turning up from all over NWFP to seek treatment of various eye problems. Specialists from our Rawalpindi Hospital are also regularly visiting Kohat to provide subspecialty treatment. With further provision of equipment and consolidation of secondary eye care facilities, many international NGOs representatives have been visiting this facility showing considerable interest. Representatives from Muslim Foundation of Toronto, ORBIS International, OEU and LIONS have visited the hospital this year.
o Community Program Expanded: Our community program at Kohat has become very popular and due to persistent demands from the community, it has been further expanded. Number of camps per week has been increased and staff and equipment has also been upgraded for this department.
o Training of Paramedics Launched: Training of ophthalmic para-professionals has been started at Kohat Hospital. This will not only help to meet the requirements of own hospital, but it will add to trained manpower in the area and result in increased job opportunities.
o As there is acute deficiency of qualified ophthalmologists in the area, Al-Shifa Kohat will soon start post-graduate training in ophthalmology with the help of Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology Al-Shifa Trust Rawalpindi.
Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology

o Two Professors of Ophthalmology. Dr. Wajid Ali Khan, Chief Consultant of Al-Shifa Trust, recently has been recently elevated by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council to the prestigious post of Professor of Ophthalmology. It may be mentioned here that Prof. Wajid is a leading Cornea Surgeon of the country. With renowned Professor Jahangir Akhtar already there, Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology has now the privilege of having two professors in ophthalmology.
o Post-graduate Training Gets Further Boost. With the process of re-invigoration on, special measures have been taken to make the post-graduate training in ophthalmology par excellence in terms of education, discipline and career development for the trainees.

  • Special training sessions have been introduced for senior FCPS residents which are not only tailor-made to meet the requirements of any international examination, but also will polish and refine their clinical acumen.
  • Discipline rules have been introduced to inculcate self-discipline, time management and professionalism.
  • Special extra-curricular activities have also been assigned to each trainee to develop their career. These include the task of Al-Shifa website development, Telemedicine applications, development of publication skills and art of patient communication etc.

o Training of the Foreign Doctors: The influx of foreign doctors and para-professionals for getting training is increasing day by day. At present, seven doctors from Bangladesh and four doctors from Afghanistan are being trained in the field of retina, pediatrics, orthoptics and general ophthalmology. ?“It is a tough training schedule, which is helping us a lot in learning fast?” said Dr. Yousaf from Afghanistan. ?“I feel quite confident now in conducting the orthoptic assessment of my patients?” said beaming Dr. Farzana Jahan from Sylhet Bangladesh.
o New batch of Residents join PIO: from 1st July, new academic year has started for FCPS and DOMS courses. A total of 12 new residents were selected after a very tough competition between doctors vying for the slot from all over Pakistan.
o New Academic Year of NAP brings in a rich national talent: The first ever degree course in Optometry/Orthoptics attracted highly talented boys from different parts of the country. 15 new students have been inducted in this course. A boys and girls hostel will be constructed to cater for the accommodation for NAP students.

Al-Shifa Center for Community Ophthalmology (ACCO)

o Re-invigoration: The management structure of ACCO has been re-organized; more experienced doctors have been added; transport facilities have been upgraded. As a result, higher targets have been set for making the program more fruitful.
o Free Eye Camps: Strategy Revised: Al-Shifa Center for Community Ophthalmology has been running outreach program for the last 15 years at Rawalpindi and for the last six years at Sukkur. Kohat has also very successfully started this outreach program. The emphasis in all these camps is early detection of disease and its prompt treatment through medical or surgical approach. Health education and school screening with provision of glasses there and then are the additional measures adopted. With an experience of over 3,000 screening camps, Al-Shifa Trust can rightly claim to be the leading eye care provider to the rural community.
o Children Screening Program gets special boost: Refractive error is one of the most important causes of impaired vision in children. That is why we have employed qualified optometrist for screening of children and prompt provision of glasses. To ensure that students continue to wear glasses, our team continuously revisit after six and twelve months and also try to arrange for glasses for second or even third time. We also encourage people to support this venture. We have planned to start a ?“Support One School (SoS)?” program in which you can help by providing glasses to all of the children in need in a particular school and then keeping up the supply for at least one subsequent year. A bigger venture is ?“Support All Schools (SAS)?” in a given sub-district (tehsil) or one whole district. Let?’s come forward and give our children a shiny future.

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INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

ORBIS Project successfully completed: One of the most successful projects for prevention and control of blindness has successfully completed. Supported by ORBIS international, the project has simply transformed our pediatric ophthalmology into a regional center of excellence where doctors from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran and rest of Pakistan are undergoing training in the field of pediatric ophthalmology. The tremendous success of this project can be judged from the following facts and figures.

  • 100,000 children treated
  • 6,000 children operated to restore their sight
  • 35,000 children underwent specialized orthoptic consultations
  • 91,000 children screened in the community
  • 2,000 children provided with glasses
  • Five specialists trained in UK , USA and Canada
  • A new block of pediatric ophthalmology constructed and equipped
  • We are thankful to ORBIS Intl for their invaluable support. The collaboration will continue beyond this project as well.

OEU Canada and Al-Shifa launch five year project for capacity building: This project is aimed at developing our specialties of Retina, Glaucoma and Cornea into centers of excellence. Spread over five years, this project supported by Operation EyeSight Universal with a matching grant from Al-Shifa will help in overcoming the acute shortage of trained professionals, equipment and infrastructure in these rather expensive subspecialties. Following the signing of MoU, the formal inauguration of ?“Al-Shifa-OEU Retina Center?” will take place in early 2007. We are thankful to OEU for this support.

MISCELLANEOUS

President Al-Shifa tours North America for Fund-raising

  • Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Jahan Dad Khan, President of Al-Shifa Trust, visited Canada and USA from 29th April to 23rd May for fund raising. The tour was quite successful in terms of donation collection (about half million dollars), strengthening of existing partnerships and development of fresh linkages. President Al-Shifa also visited the Headquarters of our long-standing international supporters of the Trust like ORBIS USA, LIONS Clubs USA and OEU Canada. He met the key members of NGOs and shared with them the key areas of interest of Al-Shifa in the future. It is worth mentioning that OEU was very helpful in the successful conduct of this fund-raising program in Canada.
  • As a result of this tour and feedback from friends, Al-Shifa is now introducing technologically advanced and faster ways of donation collection like Electronic Transfer of Funds (ETF) and Online donation.
  • During this visit, various existing Chapters of Al-Shifa in North America were re-organized to make these more pro-active in funds collection.
    We are especially thankful to our friends from AFNA for making this tour very productive.

Young Friends Internship Program:

The Young Friends of Al-Shifa were also at their best in this summer. 57 Young Friends Volunteers were selected for social work activities within the hospital. The students coming from various city schools were seen to be quite enthusiastic in helping the patients in different sections of the hospital. Zohaib Ashraf, who completed 128 hours of social work here, was declared the best internee of the month. ?“Working at Al-Shifa has indeed been an experience, which I will cherish for long. The internal pleasure that I felt by helping the patients is indescribable?” said Zohaib at the end of his work. Maimoona Birkhez, the youngest internee this summer (age 14 years) really impressed many by her dedication and commitment.

?• Staff News
Brig (Retd.) Rizwanullah Asghar has assumed the charge of Executive Director of Rawalpindi Hospital. An accomplished career officer and recipient of Sitara-e-Imtiaz, he brings with him a rich experience of management and international relations. He has worked in New York with Pakistan Embassy in advisory capacity.
o Mr. Asad Shah has been inducted as Secretary General of PIO, while Mr. Malik Abdul Majid has assumed the charge of Director of Outreach Program.

PATIENT COLUMN
1. Five years old Muhammad Osama presented with advanced infection of his left eye due to injury by a broomstick. When the child presented, the eye was beyond salvation and there was risk of loss of other eye and spread of infection to brain. After properly explaining to the family the eye had to be removed to save the child?’s sight and life. This was promptly followed by plastic surgery to replace it with an artificial eye to give a better cosmesis. The family is happy about the appearance of the eye. Most of the people in the village do not even know that child is wearing an artificial eye. The readers may kindly note that children must be kept away from any pointed articles in the house, specially knife, scissors, needles, and most importantly broomstick which can lead to devastating infection as happened in this child.
2. Seven years old Irshad Abbasi from Rahim Yar Khan presented to our orthoptic department with squint in his left eye. This has been present since last 2 years and child was shown to many doctors, but every one advised to wait for surgery. Finally, forced by constant taunting by class fellows of the child, the parents traveled all along to Al-Shifa Rawalpindi, where simple orthoptic measures were advised and you can see that child is having straight eyes without any sort of surgery. Readers may kindly note that squint in a child must be treated the moment it is noticed by the parents, as delay can result in irreversible damage to vision. That is why Al-Shifa is constantly engaged in children screening program in rural areas.
Prgress Report

Hospital and Outreach Performance

Rawalpindi, Sukkur and Kohat

Quarter two, 2006

Month
Outpatients
Operations
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Rawalpindi
Sukkur
Kohat
Rawalpindi
Sukkur
Kohat
April
13,889
3,245
2,321
1,292
345
176
May
12,821
3,109
2,444
1,180
290
210
June
13,776
2,530
2,007
1,111
213
197
July
12,345
2,543
2,132
1,296
201
167
August
10,532
1,853
1,432
934
111
103
Total
63,363
13,280
10,336
5,813
1,169
853
Grand Total
86,979
7,835
Important Coming Events At Al-shifa
  • Inauguration of Kohat Hospital by President of Pakistan
  • Visit of UK by President Al-Shifa
  • Launching of special Zakat Campaign : 1st September, 2006
  • Fund-raising function at Karachi : December 2006
  • Fund-raising function at Lahore: January 2007
APPEAL
Al-Shifa Needs Your Support
Al-Shifa is a non-profit and a non-political organization. It is committed to providing eye care and treatment mainly to the under privileged and poor. Almost 75% of all patients attending Al-Shifa Eye Hospital are treated free. The Trust is able to meet only 30-40% of its expenses from its own sources while the remaining expenses are met through zakat, donations and support from philanthropists.
Your contribution means the gift of sight for someone in need!

Kindly note that your Zakat donations go separately to the accounts which are dedicated for treatment of Zakat patients only.
Kindly send your donations or Zakat to following Account Numbers: -
1. In UK
a. Habib Bank AG Zurich 5/7 High Street Southall, Middlesex UB 1 3HA, UK
Account Number = 7-2-7-20311-402-109356 (Pound Sterling Account)
Account Number = 7-2-7-20311-333-109356 (US dollar Account)
b. HSBC Bank AuchinLeck House, Birmingham: Account Number = 40-1108-41311565
2. In USA
a) National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), 100 Wall Street, 21st Floor New York, NY 10005: Account Number = 52152578
b) Al-Shifa Foundation of North America 1200 SMITH ST STE 2355 Houston TX 77002: Tax ID (For US Residents Only) 36-4328912
3. In Pakistan, donations can be sent directly to Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Jhelum Road, Rawalpindi or to account No.365-1, Muslim Commercial Bank Limited, Al-Shifa Branch Rawalpindi. All donations in Pakistan are exempted from Income Tax vide Regional Commissioner Income Tax, Islamabad, letter number SO-III-26 (9)97-98/5422 dated 23rd May 1998.

Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Jhelum Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Tel: 0092 51 5487820-25, Fax: 0092 51 5487827
Email: [email protected]

Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Railway Road, Sukkur, Pakistan
Tel: 0092 71 5612766, 0092 71 5615466 Fax: 0092 71 5613453
Email: [email protected]

Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, KDA, Kohat, Pakistan
Tel: 0092 922 515686, 0092 922 515710: Fax: 0092 922 515668
Email: [email protected]

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