The idea of a hospital dedicated to the complete care of patients born with
cleft lip / cleft palate is the brain child of Dr. Ijaz Bashir. It started in 1995 with twice annual visits of a surgical team from United Kingdom to the OLD Bashir Hospital on Railway Road, Gujrat, Pakistan. Since Bashir Hospital is a general hospital catering to the needs of all kinds of patients, it became obvious that
everything had to stop for the 2 weeks that the Cleft Surgical team was working. After a great deal of discussions and deliberations, it was decided that a specialty hospital needed to be built specifically dedicated to the specialized and ethical care of children with clefts in Pakistan. Thus the concept of a Cleft Hospital was born. Road was donated by the Bashir Family Trust and building plans were made and construction begun. The Japanese Govt: made a substantial donation towards the construction cost and the ground floor, was made ready to operate in 2012. This included 2 operating rooms, a recovery room and 2 wards of 8 beds each. Plans for further development included a pediatric intensive care unit and private rooms for patients and their families. In addition provision was made for a dental/ orthodontic care unit, a speech therapy department and an Audiology department. All the basic construction in that regards has been done and now we are in the process of getting and installing equipment. In addition to the leadership of Dr. Ijaz Bashir and Professor A Rashid Gatrad OBE Pediatrician in UK, who donated for construction of rest of the building, Dr. Muhammad Riaz Malik, Dr. Zahid Rafique and Dr. Ian Robertson have made great amount of intellectual and conceptual input. The name The Cleft Hospital was suggested by Dr. Rifat Hussain –(who joined the effort in 2011.)- And adopted by unanimous consent. The Cleft Hospital is a unique institution of it’s own kind anywhere in the world. We only treat those patients who are born with a cleft lip and / or a cleft palate and we treat the Entire spectrum from a cleft lip repair, a cleft palate repair, dental and orthodontic evaluation and treatment, speech therapy and Audiology and problems of hearing related to Cleft palate. We treat children and adults both and we also provide plastic and reconstructive surgery to try and help solve the problems caused by complications of surgery done elsewhere. In this area we have great expertise and experience in dealing with the difficult [problem of palatal fistulas. No matter what kind of problem you have with a cleft patient…………..we are here to help. It does not matter if you have a child or you are grown up……..if you have a cleft lip or cleft palate we are here to help you. We will provide you with information if that is what you need but we can provide surgical and other services for you if you so choose. The Cleft Hospital is also a premier teaching institution for surgeons and surgical trainees. If you have an interest in doing Cleft surgery and doing it well for the benefit of your patients, call us and we will arrange for an educational and instructive course for your benefit under the supervision of world class surgeons from the U.K. We have helped these surgeons to provide much improved surgical care to their patients.
