PC-1 for liver transplant facility approved by Cabinet: Pims symposium participants informed

The Cabinet has approved PC-1 for liver transplant, according to the Organ Transplant Ordinance. This was announced in the third day session of the 5th Symposium held recently in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).
Speaking on the occasion Professor Muhammad Umer, chief of Gastroenterology and Herpetology unit of Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi, said that within 1- 2 years liver transplant would be started in the Sheikh Zaid Hospital in Lahore. He said there are 10 million patients of Hepatitis B and C in Pakistan and 10 percent of them need liver transplantation.
Professor Nadeem Ahmed, Consultant Surgeon, Pims Hospital, announced to launch 'Liver Transplant Society'. He said that more training was necessary to produce transplant surgeons, as the number of patients of Hepatitis was increasing day by day and more specialised units of liver transplant are necessary in all big cities of Pakistan. Dr Abdul Majeed Rajput, Executive Director, Pims, said that the management was laying special emphasis on the emergency and trauma care.
He informed the audience that two committees were busy, one with developing protocol for emergency care, and the other the PC-1 of the new trauma and emergency centre.
Professor Iqbal of Islamic International Medical College gave a detailed description of an ideal emergency and trauma centre. Dr Kosar Rehana, Pulmonologist, Professor Ghazala Mehmood, Professor Javed Butt, Dr Hameed ud Din, Dr Vincent Ioos, Critical Care Specialist, Dr Lubna Naseem and Dr Shagufta Hussain of Infection Diseases talked about patients of their corresponding specialties.
Professor Khaleeq uz Zaman said that leadership ownership commitment and innovation must be the hallmark of all doctors, and every doctor must be equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitude that save life.
"No doctor can have an excuse for not being able to give first-aid and support a critical patient for at least an hour, or so--the golden hour. No one including doctors VIPs, MNAs, etc, is immune to medical emergency like heart attack or trauma like road traffic accident, and may be brought to the emergency and trauma centre, as ordinary person would not get VIP treatment if the system did not identify every patient as a VIP.
In addition to the Seminar on emergency care, there were ten plenary sessions and display of poster papers. The popular sessions among the participants were those of cardiology, obstetrics, neurosurgery, pediatric and gastroenterology.
Dr Shaukat Dar, Senior Resident in the department of Neurosurgery, said that the loved ones of the patients can help reducing the incidence of pressure sores.
He said that there was a marked deduction of bedsores, and out of 1377 patient studied over the period of two years treated for a period one month to three months the pressure sores were seen only in 28.2 percent of the patients. The incidence was twice in spinal injury with paralysis, for obvious reasons. The low incidence was due to the involvement of loved ones' care given by the relatives of the patients. Dr Samina Khaleeq, senior doctor, Pims, talked about management of unknown patients with severe head injuries.
"In our hospital, the medical and surgical treatment is taken care of by the doctors and the nurses, but the family and relatives look after the general needs including the provisions of the medicine and surgical disposal at one time 3 - 4 attendants remained with the patient that support the medical staff around the clock", she said.
She further shared a study carried out of 91 unconscious patients who were brought to the department of the Neurosurgery over the period of 7 years (1999 to 2006). The range of ages was 20 to 70 years. The average stay at the hospital was 20 days, but 4 patients stayed for more than 3 months.