LAHORE: Kidney patients arriving at Lahore General Hospital (LGH) in critical condition will no longer face long waits for life-saving treatment, after philanthropists donated four modern dialysis machines and two reverse osmosis (RO) plants to establish a dedicated emergency dialysis facility at the hospital.
Principal Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Prof. Dr Farooq Afzal inaugurated the new machines and facilities at a ceremony held at the hospital. According to an official statement issued on Tuesday, the donors contributed a total of Rs 95 lakh — Rs 9.5 million — towards the upgradation of the dialysis unit and the provision of emergency equipment.
Speaking at the inauguration, Prof. Dr Farooq Afzal said Pakistan is not short of compassionate people who always come forward to serve suffering humanity. He said the emergency dialysis facility would protect patients from medical complications and spare them the hardship of long waits — a recurring problem at public-sector hospitals, where dialysis slots are limited and demand is consistently high.
The ceremony was attended by MS Dr Faryad Hussain, Professor of Nephrology Dr Ibad-ur-Rehman, Prof. Farah Shafique, Prof. Nudrat Sohail, Prof. Muhammad Shahid, Prof. Jodat Saleem, Prof. Khurram Saleem, Prof. Hassan Suleman Malik, Dr Yasir Hussain, Dr Roshina Anjum, Dr Sajid Iqbal, Dr Asia Noor, Dr Qurat-ul-Ain, Dr Abdul Aziz and other doctors.
MS LGH Dr Faryad Hussain stated that more than 18,000 patients received completely free dialysis at Lahore General Hospital over the past year under the Chief Minister Punjab’s Health Vision Programme.
The figure underlines the scale of the province’s kidney disease burden. Patients with end-stage renal disease typically require dialysis two to three times a week for the rest of their lives, making treatment costs unsustainable for low-income households without state support. Free provision at tertiary-care hospitals such as LGH remains the only realistic option for thousands of families across central Punjab.
Prof. Ibad-ur-Rehman, Head of the Nephrology Department, informed the gathering that alongside the donated equipment, the Punjab government has supplied three modern haemodiafiltration (HDF) dialysis machines to the hospital.
He added that full compliance with Punjab Health Care Commission SOPs is being ensured during dialysis. To protect hepatitis patients from cross-infection, the unit has arranged separate machines, dedicated pathways and specific entry doors — a safeguard of particular importance given the high prevalence of hepatitis B and C among dialysis populations in Pakistan.
The upgraded unit also includes a state-of-the-art classroom equipped with a digital library and multimedia, established for the education and training of health professionals. An air-conditioned waiting area has been set up for the convenience of patients’ attendants, who often spend several hours at the hospital during each session.
Prof. Dr Farooq Afzal, who also serves as Principal of Ameer-ud-Din Medical College, appreciated the round-the-clock efforts of the Nephrology Department under Prof. Ibad-ur-Rehman and his team, describing the modernisation of the dialysis centre and its continuous service to humanity as a highly commendable initiative.
He directed the hospital administration to display prominent banners across the hospital to raise awareness of the Chief Minister Punjab’s Dialysis Free Programme, so that the public can fully benefit from the free facility. He also specially praised DMS Dr Asia Noor for maintaining an excellent record of last year’s free dialyses and acknowledged her professional competence.
With emergency capacity now in place, LGH is positioned to handle acute renal cases that previously had to be stabilised elsewhere or queued behind scheduled sessions. Hospital officials indicated that public-private partnership of this kind — where donor funding supplements government procurement — is likely to remain central to expanding dialysis capacity in Punjab’s tertiary-care system.
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