Speakers at a Continuing Medical Education programme stressed need to provide latest diagnostic and treating equipment and instruments at all government health facilities to provide modern healthcare to people nearest to their homes.
This Continuing Medical Education programme (CME) programme was organised by Hospital Supply Corporation (HSC), a premier healthcare products and equipment provider company, which specialises in electro medical equipment, pharmaceutical and surgical disposable products, on the occasion of its Third Medical Exposition here at a local hotel last week.
After the programme talking to the newsmen, General Secretary Pakistan Medical Association Karachi and ENT Surgeon Dr Qaiser Sajjad said new advancement in products and instruments is a necessary phenomena.
"Government should ensure provision of basic instruments to measure different illnesses like blood pressure, thermometer weight machine etc at primary care health facilities including Basic Health Units, Rural Health Centres etc. No one can deny the importance of modern equipment, as it greatly helps in diagnosing and treating various diseases," he added.
Females most suffer from kidney diseases, as they are not provided with toilet facilities at public places at large and they had to wait till they reach homes," he told.
Talking about water diseases he said approximately three million people in Pakistan suffer from water borne diseases, of them 1.2 million die every year including 2,50,000 children of under five year age.
"This situation is very terrible and we have to act on urgent basis," he urged.
He said existing system should be changed and patients should be seen at basic health facilities and only complicated cases should be referred to tertiary care hospitals like Civil Hospital Karachi, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital etc. "There should be proper referral system," he stressed.
"If we control water borne disease only, our 50 percent health expenditure will be saved. We are also installing a water treatment system at Burns Centre, as prevention is better than cure," he added.
Director HSC Sohail Feroz said history of dialysis is not old in Pakistan and we are making efforts to provide latest and modern equipment for the betterment of patients. "We have installed 700 dialysis units so far all over the country. New dialysis machine is state-of-the-art and patient friendly and is easy to use.
This technology is recognised around the world and should help greatly in addressing Nephrology and Urology related diseases. Government has also improved its health facilities and now things are improving," he maintained.
"HSC since its inception in 1972, is striving to improve standards of healthcare in Pakistan by providing a diverse range of high-quality products and services and ultimately translating this into better quality of life for the patients. Discussing about kidney diseases, he said that about 100 people out of one million suffer from kidney disease yearly in Pakistan and 60 percent of them develop kidney stones later. "Basic reason for this is environment, heat and humid weather in Pakistan. Public is not educated about the disease.
HSC has also been instrumental in facilitating the spread of medical knowledge for the benefit of medical community and general public through arrangement of lectures, seminars, courses, scientific workshops and medial expositions," Sohail Feroz told.
HSC display included multiple stalls in its specialty areas of Nephrology, Urology, RLater, President Friends of Burns Centre Abdullah Feroz said HSC had introduce the most modern instruments, which would greatly help in providing latest diagnostic facilities to patients.
The Third Medical Exposition was organised by HSC, in which its sister concern companies displayed the wide portfolio of products and equipment.
Radiology/Sonology, Haematology, Dentistry, Critical Care, I.V Infusions, Pharmaceutical and Surgical Disposable Products.
The exposition was also attended by foreign delegates including M. Shinozaki and Shinji Iwashima from Toray Medical Company Japan, Dr Mauro Marangoni from Medis Italy, Ewad El-Shamy from Crane Environmental Company USA and Purandar Shettigar from TransAsia India. Korean Consul General and Chairman HSC Mehtabuddin Feroz also participated in the event.Chairman PPMA (Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association) Saeed Allahwala was also present on this occasion.
He appreciated efforts of HSC for bringing change in healthcare delivery system by providing latest equipment.The stalls included Efroze Chemical Industries (pharmaceutical products specially cardiology and diabetology preparations), S. Ejazuddin and Company (laboratory diagnostic equipment, reagents and surgical disposable products), Uniferoz (first aid bandages, surgical tapes and dressings), Multitech (medical and consumer products), Efrotech Services (laboratory and blood bank management system and a comprehensive hospital management system in collaboration with Softronic Systems).