KARACHI: The Dow Medical College graduating class of 1978 (Dowites78) on Friday announced that they would launch a state-of-the-art and free of cost diabetes foot care and wound clinic.

The Dowites78 Operation Theatre Complex Welfare Society at the Ruth K.M.Pfau Civil Hospital said at a press briefing that they had started working to establish that facility in front of the hospital OT Complex.

`This is expected to start receiving patients in next few months,` said founder and general secretary of the group Prof Shafigur Rehman.

Prof Rehman, himself a former professor of the DMC, said the group was behindthe OT Complex project at the Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital and now his team had geared up to establish the diabetes foot care and wound clinic.

`Our aim is a preventative and therapeutic approach to the disease where patient`s discomfort, amputation and eventual deaths could be prevented.

Prof Rehman said like the OT Complex at the Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, the newfacility would be one of a kind with ultra-modern facilities, including a hyperbaric oxygen tank for cases of gas gangrene.

`We will take ownership of patients that no one is willing to look after as this has always been our mission.

`To complete this project, we need support of philanthropists and general public to arrange finances.