Jinnah Hospital - An Introduction Pakistan

When the name Jinnah is mentioned strengths like dedication, commitment, hard work and selfless service come to mind. Named after the Father of Nation, Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, this hospital has strong history of serving hundreds of thousands of poor and deserving patients from all over Pakistan.

This important health institution that has been providing services to the very poor localities of our country for the last one decade. It was made autonomous in year 2002. The result has been a perfect amalgamation of public-private partnership alleviating the suffering of the poor. Jinnah Hospital's motto "DIGNITY IN SERVICE", is a reflection of the vision held by our great leader Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Spread over 105 acres and with 1100 beds, Jinnah is the second largest teaching hospital in the Punjab. It is the first autonomous hospital that has been properly built according to a premeditated design with three main areas. First there is a residential area for doctors, students and for the first time a rest area by the name of "Sarai" where the relatives of the patients can find temporary lodgings. The on one end is the Hospital and the third area is the Allama Iqbal Medical College.

Being strategically placed near the Motorway, Jinnah is official Hospital where all major or minor accident cases from the Motorway are brought. A majority of patients at Jinnah come from the surrounding poor suburbs like Bhai Pheru, Pattoki, Raiwind and all the near villages. Jinnah also caters to the southern localities of Lahore as well as southern Punjab.

Jinnah is a teaching hospital as well. With 1416 students studying to be doctors at Allama Iqbal Medical College and learning practical procedures at Jinnah, over 7,000 doctors have graduated from here over the last ten years.

Jinnah Hospital has provided all the services and facilities under one roof. It has a team of 65 consultant physicians & surgeons which are among the top ranking professionals in the country. It has all departments like Gynae & Obs, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Laboratory and General Surgery. What makes Jinnah stand out among the other public hospitals is additional departments like Oncology, Radiology, Plastic Surgery, Dermatology, Urology, Neurosurgery.

Jinnah Hospital's services in terms of equipment also make it shine. Complete pathology tests & scans including x-rays, ultrasound, mammography & CT-Scan are performed here. There are certain services, machines and equipment which, although easily available in the private sector are too expensive to purchase or maintain in the public sector. Jinnah Hospital has an edge over the other public hospitals in having certain machinery like a Radiotherapy Machine (Cobalt 60) which is functional in Jinnah Hospital only although Mayo hospital has one as well. Also Jinnah Hospital is the only public hospital equipped with a Mammography machine.

What is given above is just the tip of the iceberg. Jinnah's scale of services & facilities is difficult to fathom. With a management that has the sense to make the best of its autonomy, a highly dedicated and qualified staff, latest facilities and the will to serve the poor, Jinnah is there to serve and to continue serving for decades to come.

Being the Hospital for the people and by the people, Jinnah like all Trusts & Public Hospitals need support. An average of 550,000 patients visit the Out-Patient and Emergency Department every year, where 70% of the treatment is given completely free. Every year more than 1,500,000 tests are carried out in Pathology Laboratory. During year 2004, the Accident & Emergency department has treated 134,477 patients, which were not charged even a rupee for admission, tests or incase an operation is carried out. Just looking at these figures a person can easily estimate the amount of funds needed to run this mammoth hospital.

The management believes that once people, and specially the affluent class, feel that their funds are being judiciously spent, they will come back and give more. What you give might shift the balance of life in favor of a dying patient.