Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Ali Shallwani said that Public health institutions like Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Karachi are among world's best medical institutions for having services of top of the line medical professionals and state-of-the-art equipment like Cyber knife, Pet Scan and other facilities.
He said that while speaking at the inaugural session of the 54th Annual Syymposium of JPMC on Wednesday However, he said that there is also need to further improve their image by creating awareness about quality health services being provided to the people of entire Pakistan.
"Fortunately, Pakistan has one of the best doctors in the world and they are working at top medical institutions around the world. We have institutions like JPMC in Karachi where people from across the country and abroad are arriving to avail quality medical treatment without any charge. All we need at the moment is to build image of our public health institutions and restore patients' confidence in government-run health facilities," he said.
Over 1,000 delegates from entire Pakistan and abroad are attending the five-day symposium, during which 36 workshops on different aspects of medical science, surgeries, interventions and treatments would be held daily till Sunday.
Commissioner Karachi maintained that Pakistan may have imported many things and professionals from abroad but what Pakistan don't need is foreign doctors as the country's physicians and doctors are among the world's best medical professionals, who are now serving across the globe.
"And we have one of the best teams of medical professionals working at the JPMC under the leadership of Dr Seemin Jamali, which has even been acknowledged by the World Bank, World Health Organisation and other international agencies," he observed.
Shallwani said by providing latest and modern treatment facilities to the people of Pakistan under Public-Private Partnership, JPMC had set an example for other public health facilities in the province as well as the country and advised other public hospitals to learn from the experience of the JPMC to make world's best facilities available to the patients with the help of philanthropists and civil society.
Later, responding to the queries of newsmen, he said children who were not vaccinated or those whose parents refused to do so, would be the focus of the next polio vaccination drive in Karachi in December this year. He added that there were 7 to 8 high risk UCs in Karachi, which would be given special attention to eradicate polio.
Responding to another query, Commissioner Karachi said scientific approach was required to eliminate stray dogs from Karachi and added that cleanliness in Karachi to continue to get the city rid of heaps of garbage and prevent citizens from infectious diseases.
Former JPMC Executive Director Professor Hasan Manzoor Zaidi deplored that due to years of neglect, JPMC was now facing an acute shortage of staff including professors and doctors, nursing staff and paramedics and added that in the meanwhile, patients load on the hospital increased manifolds which also resulted in extra burden on the under-staffed medical institution.
He, however, lauded the role of donors for various projects initiated under public private partnership that helped patients in acquiring quality medical treatment in the recent years and hoped that issue of recruitment and promotions at JPMC would be resolved soon to ensure quality service.
The Executive Director JPMC Dr Seemin Jamali in her welcome address gave a detailed overview of services and facilities available at the health facility, saying despite facing shortage of resources, half a million patients were treated at the JPMC emergency, 1.5 million patients were seen at the Out-Patient Departments, over 33,000 major surgeries were performed and more than 20,000 babies were delivered at the JPMC last year.
She said owing to be the front line hospital for any mass disaster in the city and the province, donors and philanthropists donated millions of rupees to the JPMC for provision of the state of the art radiological facilities, Cyber knife, Pet Scan, construction of a multipurpose surgical complex and several other facilities and added that they were the only facility which was providing world' best available treatment facilities free of charge to the under privileged patients.
"Workload of this institution is perpetually increasing on account of ever increasing population of the city and also for the reason of reputation earned by JPMC for providing prompt and effective medical services. To perform this daunting task, we have a total of 2,100 regularly employed doctors, nurses and other support staff," she added.
She claimed that JPMC was under considerable strain due to meagre resources and called for filling the gap between demand for service delivery and available resources. She said that the facility was facing a dwindling work force as fresh blood was not inducted to the institution for over 12 years.
Eminent philanthropist and Chief Executive of Rashidabad Memorial Welfare Organisation, Air Commodore (retd) Shabir Ahmed Khan gave an emotional talk during the plenary session and narrated his ordeal in establishing Rashidabad, a city of education and healthcare services where numerous educational institutions for not only normal but also for the mentally and physically handicapped children were being run with the help of donors from Pakistan and abroad.
"I joined the Air Force after MSc (Hons). Then 1965 War broke out 2 months down the line. Our instructor Flt Lt Khalid embraced Shahadat but before leaving he advised us to live for others. This advice changed my life and I decided to do something for others.
I would also urge young doctors and physicians to dedicate your lives for others," former Air Force official turned social worker said.
Several others including chairperson for the conference Professor Dr Shahid Rasool and Dr Dawani also spoke, while Professor Tariq Mahmood, Professor Iqbal Afridi, Professor A R Jamali and others were also present on the occasion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019