The miracle called Indus Hospital

Over 450,000 patients benefit from the network every month

The making of the Indus Hospital is indeed an inspirational story. The idea of delivering free healthcare in Pakistan — a general hospital without any cash counter — was floated by the founding CEO of the hospital, Professor Dr Abdul Bari Khan in 1987. Dr Bari, doing a house Job at that time with the Civil Hospital, was devastated to see the dead bodies and injured rushing into the emergency ward on July 14, 1987, the day a car bombing in Saddar’s Bohri Bazaar killed 72 people and injured 250.

Amid utter helplessness, he thought he could build a hospital to utilise his skills more effectively and provide exceptional care at no cost. “Working in the government medical system, most of my energy was being misdirected, and life is too short. So I said, ‘Let’s build up a hospital where our energies are better utilised,” he said.

The idea flashed through his mind when he saw a large number of people standing in droves outside the emergency ward after the bomb blast. Especially arrived at the hospital to donate blood, they were carrying a bundle of cash in their hands to buy medicines, biscuits, juices and fruits for the injured patients. When spontaneous aid efforts can ramp up in such a situation, he can reify his dream of running a free hospital, he thought and started planning for it.

Dr Bari’s father was a pious man and it was he who first inspired his interest in philanthropy. That passion blossomed when he was a student at Dow Medical College, where he saw all kinds of patients – young, old and children – hailing from challenged backgrounds. Some of them had to sell everything they had for the treatment of their near and dear ones.

Referring to the incident at Bohri Bazaar, he said that situation was so grim that when I asked a Pashtun, who came to admit his wife at the Civil Hospital for a caesarean section, to give blood to his wife. He refused in astonishment saying doing so my wife would become my sister! Surprisingly enough, his father also had the same views. Finally, Dr Bari had to arrange blood for her. In short, healthcare also required a change of mindset.

Narrating the making of the Indus Hospital – the only of its kind of healthcare provider, he told Bolnews in an exclusive interview that soon after recovering from the traumatic experiences in the Civil Hospital he contacted the country’s renowned architect Arshad Abdullah and shared his plan with him. Arshad Abdullah readily agreed to help him out and submitted a plan for a 100-bed emergency hospital worth Rs 36 lakh.

To raise funds for the project, Dr Bari first thought of involving schoolchildren. He asked one of his friends, the owner of a plastic bottle manufacturing company, who gave him about one lakh bottles which he converted into a piggy bank and distributed in various schools in the city. He managed to collect three lakh from schools – mostly in coins which were converted into rupees from Boulton Market. The City School alone collected Rs124,000.

Though the funds raised so far were not sufficient even to start the project, he was confident that he would be able to generate enough funds to achieve his vision with the help of God. That was his faith that he hired contractors and started the construction work, requesting them to submit bills for payment.

Emotionally charged Dr Bari said, “My father used to get up at Tahajud only to pray that Allah in His infinite mercy blesses his son with the ability to serve humanity. He never prayed for anything else. And his prayers have been answered. So I continued working for my dream hospital despite all odds.”

“With an initial bill of Rs 10,000, I went to one of my friends who used to live in Thailand and had come to Karachi on a short visit. I was somehow convinced he would help us out in building the hospital and he readily agreed to bear the construction cost. While giving me the required funds, he said building a hospital might not be a problem for me but running a hospital would not be so easy I replied ‘I trust God’ and he quietly looked at me.”

He proudly pointed at the building we were sitting in and said that the first hospital was finally built and the first year’s operational expenses were Rs 0.1 billion and now Rs43 billion. “I was able to do it because of my father’s prayers and my infinite trust in Almighty Allah.” He remarked with complete satisfaction about the services being offered at the Indus Hospital. Discussing his good old days spent at Dow Medical College, he said, “The ailing healthcare management and the condition of the poor patients in the Civil Hospital always disturbed me and as such I, along with other like-minded friends, laid the foundation of the Patients Welfare Association (PWA). We reserved one of our professors’ cupboards in his room for storing medicines and various other items. Not only that, the drug addicts who used to give blood twice a week to earn enough for the drugs remained a matter of grave concern for me for there was everything in their blood except haemoglobin. So we also started running a blood bank.”

Dr Bari is of the view that when it comes to charitable giving, Pakistan is a generous country, and it contributes more than one per cent of its GDP to charity. All they want is an assurance that their money will not be misused. And as such now he has not only been able to bear the annual operating expenses of over Rs 45 billion but he is now in a position to set aside a sum of Rs 50 billion for the expansion of the current premises of the Indus Hospital.

He said that over 450,000 patients benefit from the network every month. On average, more than 2,500 patients visit the Outpatient Department and the Emergency Room at the Korangi Campus every day, while nearly 250 cases require inpatient treatment. The hospital has a limited bed capacity, while the remaining patients are referred to other healthcare facilities.

Ample donor funding had supported the hospital’s rapid growth and bolstered the founders’ faith so much that now a medical college, a nursing school, and a clinical research facility, all linked to primary care, are in the pipeline, he added.

Dr Bari said, “When somebody does good work without any vested interests, he gets universal recognition irrespective of his position, status or belief. So he also received support from both the Punjab and Sindh governments and he is now managing several government-run hospitals in these two provinces and that too on his terms and conditions.”

Explaining the role of the private sector in the healthcare system he said, “Whereas the provision of healthcare is primarily the state’s responsibility, Indus Hospital believes that the challenges of healthcare in the country are so complex and compounded that not a single entity can provide healthcare across the country of this size. Over the past decade or so, the avenue of public-private partnerships in various social sectors, including health, opened space for the Indus Hospital & Health Network to work with the government. Such partnerships, in turn, also enabled us to bring together technical expertise as well as financing from the private sector, civil society, and all relevant stakeholders to help us scale our horizon to serve the people of the country.”

Speaking about the future of the Indus Hospital he said, “We plan to establish 200 clinics based on the hub and spoke model in the next three years. The plan includes setting up container clinics, mobile bus clinics, boat clinics, fixed clinics, and telehealth centres. Presently, there are 11 active sites in Sindh and 6 in Punjab, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan other than Family Medicine Clinics at the IHHN campuses. Fixed facilities are 18, Container Clinics 05 (two are on hold), mobile medical bus 01, boat clinic 01 and Telehealth clinics 06. During the year, notable sites added were Baba Bhitt Island and Shah Jamal. Telehealth is an important component of this programme. The best part of the fact is that 90 per cent of the funds are collected from Pakistan and overseas Pakistanis only contribute 10 per cent. Moreover, most donors are common middle-class Pakistanis. The other major contributors are the corporate sector and the government.

Current hospitals, owned and managed by Indus Hospital, include: The Indus Hospital, Korangi Campus, Karachi, Sheikh Saeed Memorial Campus (SSMC), Korangi, Karachi, Al-Fakir Trust Campus, PIB, Karachi, Al-Ghazi Trust Campus, Bhong, Rahimyar Khan, Indus Hospital & Health Network – QF, NST & SMP Campus, Lahore, District Headquarter Hospital, Badin, Tehsil Headquarter Hospital, Bedian Road, Lahore, Tehsil Headquarter Hospital Manawan, Lahore, Tehsil Headquarter Hospital Raiwind, Lahore, Tehsil Headquarter Hospital Sabzazar, Lahore, Tehsil Headquarter Hospital, Kahna Nau, Lahore, Multan Institute of Kidney Diseases, Multan and Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital, Muzaffargarh.