ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: A team of top plastic surgeons and senior doctors will perform cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to cure patients of these deformities next week in Gujrat, the Pakistan Cleft Lip and Palate Association (PCLPA) announced on Thursday.

PCLPA, which is doing charitable work since 1995, said the surgeries, treatment, medicines, hospital stay and food would be provided free at the Bashir Hospital, Railway Road, Gujrat.

The surgeries will start on October 31 and continue until November 5. Before the surgeries start, outpatients would be examined in Islamabad on October 26, and in Gujrat on October 29 and 30, the charity said.

Families of cleft lip and palate patients should contact Dr Akhtar Rahman on 051-2251275 or 0333-5157676 for appointment or any information.

More than 150 patients are already registered for the 26th surgery camp of the association.

Dr Ijaz Bashir, secretary general of PCLPA and administrator of Bashir Hospital, said 2,033 children have been operated upon in the past 16 years and completely cured. “Their entire lives have changed since then,” he said.

One out of every 530 children born in Pakistan suffers from cleft lip or palate, or both. Best results of cleft lip and palate surgery can be ensured if the children are operated upon when they are three months to one year old.

PCLPA is funded by private donations. Large and prominent donors include the students and teachers of International School of Islamabad and Islamabad Foreign Wives Association (IFWA), representing wives of foreign diplomats in Pakistan.