In December 1984, the late Graham Layton and Zaka Rahmatulla’ who were retiring from their very successful business careers, decided to establish the Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust with Rs 1 million ($ 66,000). This was used to build and run a mobile eye-hospital in Tando Bago a small town 250 kilometres east of Karachi. They envisioned an organization which would grow to provide free eye treatment to the poor & underprivileged citizens across the length & breadth of Pakistan so that no Pakistani would go blind just because he/she could not afford the treatment. They also left behind 4 founding principles which we call ‘The Spirit of LRBT‘ which guide our activities and permeates everything that we do:
All treatment at LRBT should be totally free so that no man, woman or child becomes blind just because he/she cannot afford the treatment.
Treatment should be appropriate, state-of-the-art. Charity should not mean second-rate treatment.
There should be no discrimination due to gender, caste, ethnicity, language, religion or sect.
Patients should be treated with compassion and dignity.
27 years later the vision of Graham Layton & Zaka Rahmatulla is a reality and their legacy is a nationwide network of 17 purpose-built hospitals, with state of the art equipment and 53 clinics in all the 4 provinces.
Although they are no longer with us, LRBT’s founders would have been proud to see that the work they started not only continues but reaches new heights.
LRBT, through its purpose-built and appropriately-equipped hospitals provide comprehensive eye-care, ranging from simple refraction to the most advanced retinal surgery and corneal transplants. We have highly skilled doctors complemented with cutting edge technology and to add to this every patient, however poor, is treated with compassion and dignity. Every day thousands of patients visit our 17 hospitals for the treatment of the following:
- Refractive errors
- Diagnostic procedures including Fundus Flourescien Angiography , Optical Coherence Tomography, Field Analysis etc
- Cataract Surgery
- Glaucoma
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Cornea and External Eye Disease
- Oculo-plastic Services
- Lacrimal (Tear Duct) Disorder
- Orbital Disorder
- Uveitis Clinic
- Retinal disorders including Vitreo- Retinal Surgery
- Laser treatment
- Pediatric Eye Care
- Low Vision
Location
Karachi, Pakistan
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