'Over 17,000 dialyses done at LGH’

Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Principal Prof. Dr. Sardar Muhammad Al-Freed Zafar said on Sunday that the increasing rate of kidney diseases in Pakistan was a matter of grave concern. He said there was a great need for timely diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and awareness among the masses about the disease.

He expressed these views while inspecting a state-of-the-art dialysis centre at the Lahore General Hospital (LGH). Prof. of Urology Dr. Khizar Hayat Gondal, MS Dr. Amir Ghafoor Mufti, Head of Department of Nephrology Dr. Yasir Hussain, Dr. Shah Jahan, Dr. Abdul Aziz, Ashk Naz and others were also present. Al-freed Zafar said that medical experts need to focus on effective strategies and medical research for prevention of kidney disease as dialysis was not a permanent cure for such patients.

Prof. Gondal, while briefing the principal, said that since January 2021 more than 17,000 dialyses have been done free-of-cost at the LGH for which the Punjab government provided Rs39.2 million while 36 machines were working for dialysis of the patients. He said separate dialysis machines had been set up for patients with hepatitis and infectious diseases. He said that on average 60 to 70 dialyses were performed daily at the LGH.