The Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, Karachi, has so far provided medical assistance to over 100,000 people through its 198 medical staff working at its six hospital and various mobile teams operating in the earthquake devastated areas. Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Monday, PIMA chief Misbahul Aziz said that three more hospitals were being set up in the affected areas. He said that medicines worth over Rs8 million had been air lifted through C-130 aircrafts, while third consignments of medicines and necessary equipment would be sent on Tuesday. He urged medical professionals, including senior surgeons, junior doctors and paramedics, to volunteer for the relief work and contact PIMA so that they could be sent to the quake-hit areas. He also urged the philanthropists to come forward and donate generously so that their brethren living in the affected areas could be provided some relief in this testing time. Intikhab Taufeeq, the chief of a PIMA medical mission, who has returned from the affected areas, said that between 75 and 100 operations were being carried out in Jillani Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital and Atomic Energy Hospital in Abbotabad daily. Mobile teams also visit the far flung areas daily to provide medical assistance to the sick and injured at their doorsteps.
After the Kashmir Surgical Hospital set up by PIMA was destructed by the earthquake, another hospital has been set up in 70 tents since Oct 9 in Muzaffarabad where 1,200 to 1,400 patients are being examined in OPD while between 50 and 70 operations are being carried out daily. Around 13,000 patients have received treatment there. In the hospital set up in Bagh, between 20 and 40 operations were being carried out and mobile teams were sent out in remote villages daily, while other hospitals in Balakot and Rawlakot were also working round-the-clock. Two hospitals would start functioning in Garhi Habibullah and Batagram in the next couple of days, it was stated.
PIMA office-bearers said that the association was also working jointly with other social welfare organizations, including Edhi Foundation, Al-Dawah Mission and Al-Khidmat Foundation, in the devastated areas. They said that medical and relief teams from Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey, Sudan, American Islamic Medical Association, had also arrived in Islamabad and arrangements were being made to send them to affected areas. They urged people to approach doctors or organizations involved in the relief work before donating or buying any kind of medicines so that only those medicines which were required were purchased and sent to the affected areas. Sohail Akhtar, Abdul Malik and other PIMA officials also spoke.