ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi inaugurated a specialized diabetes hospital, said to be the first of its kind in South Asia, on the outskirts of Islamabad on Friday.
A beautifully structured building near lush green mountains at the Phulgran area of Pakistani capital, The Diabetes Center (TDC), is a state-of-the-art health facility.
“I hope the health facilities at (The Diabetes Center) will be no less than at any world-class hospital,” Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said while addressing the inaugural ceremony that was also attended by Ambassador of the UAE, Hamad Obaid Alzaabi.
UAE Embassy in Pakistan said on its Twitter account that the inaugurated health facility is the “the first hospital of its kind for diabetic treatment in Pakistan with the generous support of the UAE’s Red Crescent Society.”
The UAE Ambassador, in his speech at the ceremony, assured that the UAE was committed to implement more humanitarian projects in Pakistan with an emphasis on development of the health and education sectors as well as the infrastructure projects.
“On the directives of the leadership and follow-up by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the Representative of the Ruler of Abu Dhabi in AlDhafra Region and Chairman of @emiratesrc Society, the @emiratesrc has a long history of humanitarian work in different areas of Pakistan,” said a tweet from the UAE Embassy.
Federal Minister for National Health Services Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar said while addressing the ceremony that diabetes is on the rise — both globally and nationally.
“It is no longer a disease of the predominantly rich as the prevalence of diabetes is steadily increasing among the poor also,” the minister said.
According to an official press statement, she added that people with diabetes who depend on life-saving insulin pay the price of catastrophic health expenditure, especially when services are lacking and complications of diabetes affect them at an early age.
The minister said the prevalence of diabetes in Pakistan is estimated at 10 percent among adults in Pakistan, which is unacceptably high.
The Diabetes Center, a nonprofit organization, has been treating unprivileged diabetes patients and spreading awareness about the chronic disease since its launch in 2012.
Dr. Asjad Hameed, founder of TDC, along with few other co-founders, opened a small clinic at Phulgran at the outskirts of Islamabad.
“The clinic has to date treated more than 17,000 patients free of charge and is at present serving around 500 patients per week who mainly come from various districts of northern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the TDC said on its website.
According to the TDC, the hospital is first of its kind in South Asia and provides a comprehensive solution to patients suffering from complexities of this deadly disease.
“TDC is inaudibly sharing the burden of government hospitals and has started to create an unignorable socioeconomic impact,” the TDC said.