BBH kidney transplant centre gets approval

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government on Thursday approved the establishment of a kidney transplant centre at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH).

The head of BBH’s Nephrology Department, Professor Dr Zainul Amir, will lead a team of doctors comprising Dr Ahmed Sajjad, Dr Zeeshan and Dr Mudassir which will conduct kidney transplants in the centre.

Dr Amir appreciated the government and the provincial health minister for approving the centre, adding that hundreds of patients with kidney and renal problems are already receiving free and quality treatment at BBH daily.

However, he said that the kidney department at BBH has been working with very limited resources and patients had to wait for months for operations.

The centre thus needs expansion and improvement of infrastructure.

Moreover, the department’s upgrade project has been suffering delays for the last eight years because the government has been focusing on the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant (RIUKT). But the authorities have failed to operationalise RIUKT. Officials say RIUKT has a deadline for next month.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2020.