Eye Hospital

Business Plan for Proposed Eye Hospital in Mansehra

Background

The prevalence of blindness in Pakistan according to the national survey done in 2004 is 1.03%. There are 1.7 million blind people in Pakistan & another 170,000 become blind every year. 80 % of the blindness is curable but as 2/3rd of the population lives at or below the poverty line they are unable to afford the treatment.

Current Activities

The Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust (LRBT) is the largest provider of eye care in the country through its network of 2 Tertiary, 10 Secondary, 3 mini hospitals (15 in all) & 36 primary eye care / outreach clinics. All its hospitals are equipped with appropriate state of the art equipment & staffed with skilled & experienced doctors & paramedics. In the 23 years of its existence it has treated over 14.6 million patients in OPD & performed 1.56 million major & minor surgeries. LRBT treats 36% of all eye patients in its OPDs & performs 27.4 % of all eye surgeries in Pakistan. All treatment & surgery (including IOLs) at LRBT is totally free to ensure that no man, woman & child goes blind simply because they cannot afford the treatment.

Following the October earthquake LRBT set up an interim eye hospital for the earthquake affectees in rented premises in Mansehra which commenced operations in mid November 2005. From mid November to 31st July 08 : 142,565 patients visited OPD, 13,999 surgeries performed absolutely free of cost.

Further information on LRBT is available on its website www.lrbt.org.pk

Proposed Project

The areas hit by the October earthquake (7.6 on the Richter scale) are one of the least developed areas with poverty levels much higher than in the rest of the country. Whatever limited eye care facilities were available in the region have been destroyed.

It is our intention to set up a permanent eye hospital replacing the interim Mansehra facility. It will be a 32 bed hospital with facilities for OPD, pharmacy, major & minor operation...