Pressing need: ‘Work on transplant institute in full swing’

Two-day organ transplant conference underway

LAHORE:

Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique said on Tuesday that state-of-the-art organ transplant institutes were being established in the province.

The chief minister’s adviser made the remarks at the inaugural session of a two-day organ transplant conference organised by Shaikh Zayed Hospital. Rafique said liver transplant surgeries were being carried out successfully at the hospital. He said the first phase of the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant and Research Institute (PKLI) would be completed by August, 2017.

Rafique said those suffering from renal failure and liver diseases needed transplants. He said this made it crucial to encourage people to donate organs. Rafique said a comprehensive campaign to raise public awareness was also needed in this regard.

The chief minister’s adviser also announced on the occasion to donate his organs.

Rafique said work on the institute was in full swing. He said an institute of bone-marrow transplant and blood diseases would also be established. Rafique said a sum of Rs3 billion would be spent on this account.

He said the bone-marrow transplant centres at Children’s Hospital would start functioning by the end of 2016.

Rafique said children suffering from thalassemia and blood diseases would be treated there. He said the recommendations of the conference would help formulate a more effective strategy for establishing such institutes.

Shaikh Zayed Hospital Chairman Fareed Ahmad Khan said hundreds of retina donations came for citizens from Sri Lanka every year. He said the sight of countless visually impaired people had been restored due to these donations. Khan said there was a need to foster a culture of donating organs.

He said a formidable number of liver and kidney patients needed transplants. Khan said new institutions should be set up to ensure provision of treatment in this regard. He said relatives of patients should also be encouraged to donate organs.

Khan said dialysis was only a temporary way of treating renal failure and transplants were required to save lives of those suffering from kidney problems.

Health Secretary Jawad Malik, Senator Ghaus Muhammad, PKLI Trust chairman Saeed Akhtar, Children’s Hospital Dean Masood Sadiq and Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Principal Khalid Mehmood were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2015.