JEDDAH — A world-class kidney center in north Pakistan is closer to becoming reality, guests at the Pakistan Welfare Society's second annual dinner in Jeddah were told recently. Pakistan Consul General Ahmed Khokhar and Saudi Gazette Editor-in-Chief Khaled Almaeena were among the leading guests at the event, which was attended by over 200 Saudi and Pakistani doctors, engineers and business executives. After Dr. Naqi Idrees, a kidney specialist from King Faisal Hospital, delivered a seminar on being healthy during Ramadan, Dr. Shams Toor delivered a progress report on the society and the Pakistan Kidney Center (PKC), currently under construction in Abbottabad. As part of the presentation Aamir Hameed, a kidney patient, talked about his experience of dialysis and advised on how best to avoid kidney ailments. PWC's founder and president Dr. Khalil ur Rehman, himself a kidney specialist, advised on the construction status of the Center and presented the latest slides and videos on the project. Supervised by the society's board of trustees, PKC is being managed with full devotion and transparency. The construction of PKC was inaugurated in December 2012 by famous scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, and is expected to be completed within two years. The 11,000 square feet plot of land located on the main Karakoram highway, five kilometers south of Abbottabad, was generously donated by one of the trustees. The cost of the project, estimated to be SR 4.8 million, is being raised through private donations from all over the world. Foundation work has been completed and construction of the ground floor construction. The target is to have the center fully functional by December 2014. It was revealed that a kidney dialysis patient spends 15,000 Pakistani rupees (SR600) every week, in addition to the medicine costs. This cost of treatment is unaffordable to the majority of dialysis patients in Pakistan. Once the center opens, an estimated target population of 10 million patients will benefit from state-of-the-art kidney dialysis technology, latest medical facilities, and highly trained doctors and kidney specialists. Almaeena commended the society on providing free medical services to deserving patients in Saudi Arabia since 2006. He said participants at the event should work together to build the center and hoped it would emerge as a world-class hospital, research and training center in the region. Khokhar said the society has regularly organized free medical camps every fortnight since 2006 and to date treated 31,000 patients. He praised efforts to construct the Pakistan Kidney Center and pledged support for the scheme. He said over 5,000 Pakistanis have successfully been assisted by the Pakistan Consulate in finding new jobs and new sponsors during the extended grace period for illegal workers to rectify their status.
