Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated Islamabad’s revamped Pakistan-China Friendship Hospital and ordered free, quality treatment for patients, with the government meeting the full cost of care. The 182-bed facility, gifted by China during the COVID-19 pandemic, is returning to service after remaining closed for years.
Government to fund care, Indus to manage services
The Indus Hospital and Health Network will run the hospital through a public-private partnership, providing management and medical expertise while the government finances patient treatment. Sharif also ordered an independent third-party review of performance to assess service quality and strengthen accountability.
During his visit, the prime minister toured the renovated hospital, met patients and received a briefing from Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal. He instructed the minister and hospital management to develop the facility into an example for other public healthcare institutions.
A pandemic-era gift returns to use
The facility was originally known as the Isolation Hospital and Infectious Treatment Centre. It stopped operating after the pandemic subsided and remained unused for years before its renovation and renaming.
Sharif said a newspaper report had alerted him to the hospital’s condition, prompting him to direct the health minister to restore it urgently. He regretted its prolonged closure and apologised to the Chinese ambassador and the people of China for the time the facility had remained shut.
Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong welcomed its conversion from an isolation facility into a general hospital. He also welcomed the Pakistan-China Friendship Hospital name and expressed hope that the institution would continue serving patients and strengthening relations between the two countries.
182 beds for patients from the capital and beyond
The hospital includes 50 intensive care beds within its total capacity of 182 beds. Kamal said the facility would help meet rising healthcare demand as Islamabad’s population grows and patients travel to the capital from other regions.
- Islamabad and Rawalpindi
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Gilgit-Baltistan
- Azad Jammu and Kashmir
- Other parts of Pakistan
The health minister also said a 200-bed cancer hospital at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences had been prepared and was expected to begin operating next year.
Network plans a blood centre in Islamabad
Dr Abdul Bari Khan, chief executive officer of the Indus Hospital and Health Network, said the partnership would allow the organisation to extend free healthcare in the federal capital. He also announced plans for a blood centre in Islamabad.
He said the network runs 15 hospitals, 140 primary healthcare clinics, four blood centres and four physical rehabilitation centres across Pakistan, serving about 700,000 patients each month. Around 70 per cent of its total budget is raised within Pakistan, he added.
