- The Hospital remains caring and compassionate to all human beings
- IHHN currently working on six distinct areas to better serve humankind
Interview with Dr. Abdul Bari Khan — President, Indus Hospital & Health Network
PAGE: Tell me something about yourself, please:
Dr. Abdul Bari Khan: I have had the privilege to have been the CEO of the then Indus Hospital. Now I am honored to be the Founding President of today’s Indus Hospital & Health Network. I was born in Karachi, to a family originally from Peshawar. To my good fortune, I belong to a religious family widely known for their piety, altruism, compassion and generosity towards community and humanity. I consider myself blessed to have inculcated these values since childhood and have tried my best to live my life promoting and practicing the same.
My childhood, college and higher education is from Karachi and since my youth, I have been involved in community service. I graduated from Dow Medical College, Karachi in 1986 and as a medical student, I was associated with the Patients’ Welfare Association (PWA) as a project in charge of the Blood Bank and Blood Fractionation Unit. After completing my MBBS, I was lucky enough to lead the PWA project to establish the New Emergency and Accident Unit of Civil Hospital Karachi through voluntary donations. I completed my fellowship in Cardiac Surgery in 1995 and trained at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD).
After completing my fellowship in 1999, I joined Civil Hospital, Karachi as a Cardiac Surgeon but without a Cardiac Surgery Department. In around two years, with the help of various donors and philanthropists, we were able to raise PKR 30.5 million which helped establish the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Dow Medical College & Civil Hospital, Karachi. This would not have been possible without the philanthropy Pakistan displayed, and I am proud to have played a role in the Department of Cardiac Surgery, which now serves as a model cardiac surgery ward of the country, providing free-of-cost Cardiac Surgery to non-affording patients.
Apart from my professional responsibilities, I also consider myself a social activist devoted to promoting healthcare facilities and services in the country. I truly believe that private participation in public sector hospitals is the cornerstone to improving the health sector, and I feel lucky to have been given the opportunity to promote this in all my endeavors.
Since my childhood, I’ve been taught to care for people. My father always told me to be good to people and by nature, I have always felt the pain of human suffering. So, naturally, I was drawn towards medicine as a career and had always dreamt of setting up a model hospital to serve the underprivileged people of society. This dream hospital that I had created would not pressure the patient to pay exorbitant fees and so, to make this dream a reality, we started our efforts in 2005, and by 2007, we were able to get hold of a non-functional hospital known as the Islamic Mission Hospital. We renamed the institution to The Indus Hospital (TIH). Since then, TIH has evolved to become Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN) – a nationwide health network providing 100% free of cost and high-quality healthcare.
PAGE: Charity is a central tenet of Islam, which lays great emphasis on supporting the needy and the poor. What is your perspective on it?
Dr. Abdul Bari Khan: At the heart of Indus Hospital & Health Network’s (IHHN) vision is our commitment to excellence in healthcare service free for all, solely for the pleasure of the Almighty. Everything that we do revolves around this pursuit of pleasing the Almighty, so it is clear that as an institution, we are very driven by our unshakeable belief that working towards alleviating human suffering and saving lives will have divine intervention and support. Moreover, Zakat (obligatory charity) and Sadaqah (voluntary charity) given by Pakistanis here as well as across the globe are key to our survival, and it is only due to the charity given by them that we have been able to support the needy and the poor. For me personally as well, being caring and compassionate to my fellow human beings – which are also central to Islam – are values that my parents inculcated in me since my childhood, in order to uphold the legacy of Islam. Every day, I strive to practice these same values, which to me go hand in hand with charity, and consider myself extremely blessed to be in a position where I can help support the most vulnerable in society. Therefore, given the significance of charity in Islam and how this has been inculcated in me since my childhood, my perspective on this central tenet can only be that of complete submission.
It is key to also note that we are fortunate to be living in Pakistan – a country that is in the top 5 most philanthropic nations in the world. Also, according to recent findings of the Pakistan Center of Philanthropy, health is amongst the leading sectors receiving philanthropy. However, the challenge continues that this generosity must be given to institutions that are truly transparent and deserving. Islam is not a religion solely for Muslims but acts as a guiding force for humanity. Therefore, by using our faith and religion, we are absolutely indiscriminate and treat more than 10,000 non-Muslims every year through Sadaqah and Donations. So, where Indus is obviously entrenched and embedded deeply in the spirit of giving and the glory of generosity in Islam, Indus is for everyone.
PAGE: Could you tell me about the monetary requirements of IHHN over the course of the next year?
Dr. Abdul Bari Khan: In just the past 15 years, IHHN has established its presence across the nation through its network of hospitals; blood centers; physical rehabilitation centers; primary care centers; container, mobile and boat clinics – all of this and more amounting to us benefitting over 500,000 patients every month. However, we are currently facing a dire requirement for financial resources. Given the recent price hikes in the cost of raw materials, medications and equipment as a result of Pakistan’s inflation rate, our annual expenditures just in Karachi are expected to rise from the current amount of PKR 12 billion to PKR 15 billion in the coming year. Aggravating this is the patient inflow at all our facilities, which has increased by almost 42%. Also, more than PKR 1.5 billion – a significant proportion of our funds – has also been invested in the provision of emergency relief services to the flood-affected areas of Pakistan.
Moreover, we are building Pakistan’s largest not-for-profit hospital in Karachi in the history of the country – aiming to start the bulk of its services this year and next year. This mammoth undertaking means that we will require an excess of PKR 15 billion (USD 52 million) to finish the hospital and as a result, we anticipate that there will be at least a 50% increase in our operational expenditures directed toward patient care. As a context, we must not forget that we are building this hospital in one of the largest cities in the world, which is also among the fastest-growing cities in the world. As a city, Karachi has a huge gulf between what is needed and what is available in terms of healthcare. Therefore, it is clear that we are in a time of critical need and it is my sincere appeal to everyone to come forward and contribute openheartedly to Indus Hospital. I have full faith that with the help of Pakistanis at home and abroad, along with our unshakeable belief and faith in the Almighty, we will be able to continue on our mission of providing free-of-cost, high-quality healthcare to all.
PAGE: Could you tell us about Donation and Zakat sent by the Pakistani diaspora?
Dr. Abdul Bari Khan: What continues to amaze me about the rapid growth IHHN has experienced, is the support we have received from across the globe and especially the Pakistani diaspora which has been a constant supporter. Our International Chapters in Canada, USA, UK, UAE, Australia, Switzerland and Germany, have been integral in engaging the Pakistani diaspora community and in fact non-Pakistanis as well. Throughout the year, I too regularly travel to our International Chapters, to meet with our supporters across the globe and their commitment to the vulnerable in Pakistan through generous Zakat and Donations, has been so inspirational to witness.
PAGE: How are charitable organizations being helped by the government?
Dr. Abdul Bari Khan: It is my sincere conviction that a robust health sector includes both public and private providers, and we have seen the benefits which can be achieved when governments partner with charitable organizations for the good of the people. For us at Indus, we have always believed in working with provincial governments, and as such, have been engaging in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) of various modalities across Pakistan. With the assistance and funding provided through PPPs, we have been able to expand our network across Pakistan and has made significant steps towards achieving the goal of providing quality, free-of-cost healthcare to all Pakistani citizens.
In Sindh, IHHN manages the District Headquarters Hospital, Badin and Regional Blood Center (RBC), Jamshoro. In Punjab, IHHN manages 8 Hospitals including the Indus Hospital, Bedian Road Campus, Tehsil Headquarter Hospital (THQ), Raiwind, Lahore, THQ, Kahna Nau, Lahore, Manawan General Hospital, Lahore, Sabzazar Hospital, Lahore, Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital, Muzaffargarh, Multan Institute of Kidney Diseases, Multan, a Mother & Child Care Hospital in Mianwali and Regional Blood Center’s in Multan and Bahawalpur.
Moreover, in Balochistan, IHHN manages the pediatric oncology unit at Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Quetta, and the Gwadar Development Authority Hospital in Gwadar and has also partnered with the health department under the Global Fund grant for Malaria, for which IHHN is the private-sector principal recipient.
The Government of Sindh particularly has also been supporting IHHN in its expansion plans in Karachi in building Pakistan’s private-sector largest free-of-cost hospital, as well as the operational expenses of the current hospital. I truly believe that without the support of provincial governments, Indus would certainly not have transformed into one of the largest health networks in the private sector of Pakistan, present at all levels of the healthcare continuum.
PAGE: Could you elaborate on the expansion strategy of IHHN?
Dr. Abdul Bari Khan: We are making substantial efforts to create an integrated model of healthcare which would consist of primary care units, and secondary and tertiary care hospitals throughout the country and I truly believe our efforts will also have a serious and positive impact on Pakistan’s Sustainable Development Goals. For our expansion strategy, which requires significant thinking, planning, and consolidation for the future, we have developed 6 distinct areas for our services, interventions, outreach and expansion. As the President of IHHN, it is now my main responsibility to ensure that all of our work toward achieving our goals is set under each of these 6 areas. These include:
- Invest in a robust primary care network through innovation, increasing access to care, improving clinical outcomes and reducing the burden of disease as well as healthcare expenditures.
- Increase service-delivery capacity through hospitals, to position IHHN as an internationally-renowned enterprise with the deployment of tertiary and secondary care facilities that will enhance the scope and presence of IHHN. In this, IHHN will establish a presence in all provinces and major cities of Pakistan through a network of inter-connected hospitals and secondary-care facilities.
- Cultivate the leaders of today and tomorrow through quality education and training, to nurture tomorrow’s leaders by providing platforms for them that will allow them to become dynamically and actively engaged with the healthcare transformation of the country.
- Leading cutting-edge research, enabling IHHN and its stakeholders to share knowledge, and helping position Pakistan on the global map of high-quality scientific and public health research avenues.
- Integrate a multi-sectoral approach, by engaging multiple partners to leverage knowledge, expertise, reach and resources, to work toward the shared goal of producing better health outcomes.
- Build alliances and partnerships for sustainable resource generation, through growing the network’s propensity for both national and international symbiotic partnerships. Partnerships are to be sought out to instill greater efficiencies in the use of resources available in the country and globally through higher levels of coordination and synergy amongst various stakeholders.