Free Medical Camps for Poor Organized by TransparentHands

“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”

                                                                                                                      -Nelson Mandela

A true community is not just about being geographically close to someone on part of the same social web network. It’s about feeling connected and responsible for what happens. For TransparentHands, humanity is their ultimate community.

TransparentHands is a medical trust in Pakistan which funds surgeries of poor patients using a global crowdfunding platform. This platform provides visibility of poor patients and builds a personal and trusted bond between patients and donors while ensuring complete transparency.

TransparentHands also organizes medical camps in Pakistan in collaboration with Pakistani companies to reach the poor patients in the rural areas of Pakistan as these underprivileged people cannot even afford general health diagnosis or treatment.

Free Medical Camp in Pakpattan in collaboration with Hope Uplift Foundation

So far TransparentHands has organized 18 medical camps in rural areas of Pakistan sponsored by Pakistani companies. These camps provide free medical checkups, free medicines, free blood pressure, and free blood sugar checkup facilities to the underprivileged population. Till now, TransparentHands has treated over 3500 patients in different areas of the country. In these medical camps, a few surgical cases of Tonsillitis, Fibroid Uterus, Kidney stones, Gallbladder stone, Paraumbilical Hernia, Preauricular Cyst, and Nasal Polyp were also identified and they were further registered for surgery with TransparentHands. A team comprising of doctors,  pharmacists/dispenser,  phlebotomist,  supervisor, and patient registration persons manage these medical camps successfully.

The medical camps organized by NGO’s or Medical Trusts are vitally important in Pakistan, where healthcare facilities do not reach all. The expenses of food and healthcare have increased for the poor in the country. As a result, the poor have constrained access to health services. Poverty and income inequality in Pakistan has been increasing during the last few years. So people with higher incomes enjoy better health but those with lower incomes don’t even get the basic healthcare facilities. The health status of families deteriorates when children get older and costs of living go up.

Pakistan’s healthcare sector is encountering a lack of specialists and female physicians; resulting in crippling the medical services for the public badly. According to PMDC statistics, there are 135,923 registered general physicians in Pakistan; 46% were females, and 29,487 specialists, with 73% being males. In dentistry, there are 12,782 dentists, with 38% being males, and 1,077 specialists comprising 72% males. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 1 doctor for 1,000 populations. In Pakistan, the average ratio is 8.1 physicians per 10,000 people.

The role of female ophthalmologists is specifically important in rural/district areas constituting 70% population and having a high prevalence of eye disorders among women. Women have hesitation to see a male doctor, which will ultimately lead to poor vision and impede the quality of life. Besides, 15,000 doctors move abroad every year to pursue their careers resulting in a reduced workforce back home.

Dawn reported that around 40,000 infants in Pakistan are born with Congenital Heart Disease every year and 10,000 of them are critical. These infants with CHD did not usually survive beyond the first few weeks and die from Congestive Cardiac failure and infections like Pneumonia.

Pakistan’s health indicators are comparatively worse than those of other countries in the South Asian region with a comparable level of development. The institutions in Pakistan’s health system lack the necessary professional capacities and are unable to offer the population comprehensive, and affordable health care of adequate quality.

In such circumstances, an honest approach was required to help the healthcare sector in Pakistan which is why the NGOs and Medical Trusts had to step up to tackle these issues. 

The mission of Free Medical Camps for Poor

TransparentHands is reaching out to the poor patients for whom basic healthcare is just a distant dream. Transparent Hands through medical camps are treating deserving patients who cannot afford basic healthcare facilities. They visit different places and provide medical treatments free of cost. Poor people come to these medical camps because of free healthcare services that they can’t afford in private or public hospitals.

TransparentHands with their generosity and transparent services have saved many lives. They have taken the responsibility to trigger a positive change in our society, which is necessary to achieve sustainability for our race and the country.