ARTIFICIAL LIMB CENTRE , FAUJI FOUNDATION

Artificial Limbs Centre (ALC) is the first center of its kind in the sub-continent. It was set up in 1911 at Puna in India, in anticipation of the casualties likely to occur in impending wars. Since a large majority of the soldiers of the British Indian Army came from the north-western part of India, it was later moved there; first to Sialkot in 1936 and then to Lahore in 1946. It continued to function here under the control of the Pakistan Army. After the 1965 War, as a lot of the war casualties were from the northern part of Pakistan, it was shifted to Rawalpindi. Since 1966, it is working under Fauji Foundation Hospital, Rawalpindi. The Artificial Limbs Centre is also the largest such center in the country. On average, it provides over 7,000 artificial limbs and supporting appliances every year, approximately one-third of which go to non-Beneficiaries on a cost price basis. Ex-servicemen, their families, and those eligible for zakat get them free of cost. Since 1966, when this center came under the Fauji Foundation, it has provided 2,23,538 artificial limbs and related appliances to patients, besides having done repair work on another 89,631. After the earthquake of 8th October 2005, the Artificial Limbs Centre played a major role in the provision of prostheses and orthoses to the injured. By fitting 259 prostheses and orthoses, it made the largest single contribution to this effort. In collaboration with the ICRC (the International Committee of the Red Cross), it is also carrying out a reach-out program, through which about 51 patients have so far been provided with artificial limbs and supports. In 2012, ALC was shifted to its new purpose-built building having a covered area of 37,500 sq ft with a budget cost of Rs 105 million. ALC, FFH presently providing the latest type of prosthetics/orthoses to disabled patients by using modular prosthetic components indigenously as well as of imported nature.