Pak-China Friendship Hospital in Islamabad: 250-bed general hospital likely to open on 27 October

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to inaugurate the 250-bed Pak-China Friendship Hospital in Islamabad on Tuesday 27 October 2026, ARY News reported. The date has not been confirmed in an official notice.

The hospital in brief

• Beds: 250.
• Type: a general hospital.
• Funding: the building was paid for with a $4 million donation from the Chinese government, about Rs 1.1 billion at today's dollar rate.
• Name: it was first planned as Margalla Hospital; the prime minister directed that it be called Pak-China Friendship Hospital.
• Who is involved: the Ministry of National Health Services and the Infectious Disease Isolation Hospital and Treatment Centre (IHITC).

From Covid ward to general hospital

The facility was set up in 2020 as an isolation hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic and was later deactivated because of operational problems, ARY said. The isolation facility is to run under a public-private partnership, and the health ministry had earlier signed an agreement with the Indus Hospital and Health Network to manage it. The ministry has not yet published which departments, outpatient clinics or emergency services will open first, or the hours.

Why it matters

Islamabad's public hospitals, PIMS and the Federal Government Polyclinic, take patients from Rawalpindi, northern Punjab, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and their wards and emergency rooms are routinely overcrowded. Another 250 public beds in the capital would ease some of that load, and the isolation capacity matters this year with mpox cases reported in Sindh.

We will update this page with the departments, timings and address once the hospital opens. Health news is in our health section.