More assurances: Liver transplant centre faces further delay

Government maintains the first of its kind transplant facility will be set up soon.

ISLAMABAD: The government has further delayed the country’s first ever Liver Transplant Centre which is to be set up in Islamabad at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

The project was announced by former prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Recently, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also pledged the execution of the same project. However, no concrete measures have been taken in this regard so far.

Responding to a question in the National Assembly, Federal Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin on Monday reiterated the government’s resolve to build the centre. “We are planning to establish two liver transplant and treatment centres in the country for curing patients in an efficient manner,” he said.

The minister claimed that the centre would be completed by the end of 2011.

Dr Wasim Khawaja of Pims, when contacted, told The Express Tribune that the project was being delayed unnecessarily. He said it would take “years to complete.”  He further said that if the incumbent government was to succeed in establishing the centre in one or two years, it would be a “preliminary kind of centre.”

“Currently, Pakistani doctors are incapable of curing the disease. It is necessary for the government to send a team to other countries for appropriate training,” he said.

“Liver related diseases and mortality rates from failure of the organ are amongst the top causes of death in Pakistan,” he said, adding, “Currently there are no dedicated medical institutions, which provide advanced treatment options to manage such diseases.”

According to the Dr Khwaja, around 10 per cent patients suffer from chronic liver diseases in our country. He said that in the absence of a transplant centre most of the patients preferred to go to India, and get treated for Rs4 million to Rs5 million. “Countries like China and UK are comparatively more expensive,” he said.

On the other hand, the health minister claimed that the transplant centre for Liver Disease and Organ Transplant will be the first dedicated facility of its kind in Pakistan with an estimated cost of $6.25 million. The facility will be established at Pims and  have a 40-bed capacity, which will be enhanced over time. He said that one such centre would also be established at Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore. Shahabuddin further said that a grant of Rs200 million for the centre at PIMS Islamabad and Rs177 million for the centre at Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, have been sanctioned.

Responding to a question by MNA Shugufta Sadiq, he said there was no proposal under consideration to establish any new Burn Units in the federal government hospitals of the major cities of the country. “However, a burn centre was already functioning in Pims.

The minister said that no survey had been conducted to ascertain the number of maternity related deaths in the years 2009 to 2010 but the last survey was conducted in 2006-07. This survey revealed that in Punjab 227 per 100000 women died during delivery.

In Sindh the number was 314/10000 and for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa it was 275/10000. The figure took a steep rise in Balochistan, which was 785/100000 and lastly, in Azad Kashmir 400/10000 such cases were reported.

Giving the details of the survey, Shahabuddin said, “The major causes of maternal deaths were severe bleeding/haemorrhage (25 per cent), infections (13 per cent), unsafe abortions (13 per cent), Eclampsia (12 per cent), obstructed labour (8 per cent), indirect causes (20 per cent). Indirect causes include diseases like malaria, anaemia, HIV/AIDS and cardiovascular disease, complicate pregnancy. He said that there was no proposal to establish government maternity homes in the country at present.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2010.