The Ambassador of France, Daniel Jouanneau was the guest of honour at the inauguration of videoconferencing (e-learning) facilities for the Master's in Critical Care Medicine initiated by the Quaid-i-Azam Post Graduate Medical College, on Wednesday. The Secretary Health, Khushnood Lashari was the chief guest.
PIMS and Saint Antoine Hospital in Paris are celebrating 10 years of collaboration through a partnership funded by the French government. In December 2000, a medical ICU has been established at PIMS with French assistance. Since then the facility has provided ICU care for more than 3,500 patients. Patients suffering from severe infections, neurological diseases, pregnancy related emergencies, acute respiratory failure, multiple trauma or poisoning are treated in this unit.
Critical care provides medical attention to acutely ill patients requiring organ support like mechanical ventilation, dialysis or infusion of drugs to maintain the blood pressure. It requires the availability of trained, dedicated doctors and nurses providing specialised care round the clock. Critical care medicine has been recently recognised as a speciality.
Quaid-i-Azam University has approved the format and the curriculum of a Master's in Critical Care Medicine, the first teaching programme in this discipline in Pakistan oriented towards service delivery and the provision of primary care to the critically ill.
ICUs in the country are indeed suffering from inadequate human resources and lack of standardisation of the services. There is no career structure or any financial incentives for the doctors working in ICUs despite full stress duties and the requirement of a high level of competency. PIMS has submitted a PC-1 to Ministry of Health in that respect, to create positions of consultants in critical care medicine and to ensure specific allowances to the health workers appointed in ICUs.
Videoconferencing equipment has been funded through a dedicated grant from the French government. Teaching sessions are organised by a joint Pak-French faculty. The inaugural ceremony was attended through videoconferencing from Paris by Professor Offenstadt of Saint Antoine Hospital and Professor Bertrand Guidet, President of the French Society of Critical Care Medicine (SRLF).-PR
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