Public health: Faisalabad DHQ hospital to get kidney centre

100-bed building has been completed at a cost of Rs68.7 million.

FAISALABAD:

A state-of-the-art 100-bed kidney centre will be set up at the divisional headquarters hospital, District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal said on Tuesday.

He was visiting the hospital to review arrangements regarding establishment of the kidney centre. The centre will be the first in the district and provide medical treatment for several urinary and kidney diseases under one roof.

Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Suhail bin Rasheed, DHQ hospital Medical Superintendent Arif Ali, Additional MS Habib Butar, Executive District Officer (Health) Waqar Sadiq and EDO (Finance) Ayub Khan also accompanied the DCO.

The DCO was informed that a newly built building at the hospital had been vacant. He was told the building had a capacity of 100-beds and had been completed at a cost of Rs68.7 million.



The hospital authorities proposed that the building be made into a kidney centre. The DCO agreed and announced to allocate Rs8 million for equipment, completion of incomplete work and renovation of the kidney centre. He appointed Prof Safdar Hassan Sial, the Punjab Medical College Urology Department head, as the focal person. Dr Sial has been directed to look after the affairs of kidney centre and make it functional at the earliest.

The DCO said the remaining work on the kidney centre should be completed in two weeks. He said the authorities to recruit more labour for double-shifts.

The DCO said the kidney centre should be equipped with modern machinery.

He said kidney transplantation, removal of stones and treatment of bladder cancer and other urinary-related problems will be free-of-cost at the kidney centre.

He directed the officials concerned to ask philanthropists and businessmen for charity.

Earlier, Dr Sial told the DCO that although the Urology Department of Allied Hospital was engaged in providing treatment to kidney patients, it still lacked resources and modern medical facilities. He said there were thousands of kidney and bladder patients in Faisalabad who could not be treated due to lack of a kidney centre.

He said such people then approached quacks and inexperienced practitioners as they could not afford treatment expenses in bigger cities and travelling costs.

He said the air and water pollution in Faisalabad was increasing at an alarming rate causing kidney and bladder diseases.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2013.