Neglect renders skin bank defunct

Critical machinery dismantled

MULTAN:

The Pak Italian Modern Burn Unit, initially established with foreign donations following the tragic incident in Ahmedpur Sharqia, has been left in a state of abandonment.

Despite the infusion of foreign funds for its setup, neither the secretariat nor any administrative officer demonstrated interest in maintaining the project.

The current administration of the burn unit took the drastic step of dismantling the machinery designated for the skin bank and transferring it to a biomedical engineer. Additionally, the room originally allocated for the skin bank has been reassigned for use by nurses, rendering the facility inactive before it could serve its intended purpose. This decision has raised concerns about the potential deterioration of the expensive machinery acquired for the public health facility.

According to sources, between 2018 and 2019, the previous administration of the Pak Italian Modern Burn Unit initiated the establishment of a skin bank.

Substantial machinery, costing millions of rupees, was procured to facilitate the preservation of donated skin.

The primary objective was to utilise this preserved skin for plastic surgery on burn patients. However, the current administration has opted to discontinue the skin bank project, leaving the machinery unused and neglected. Not only was the machinery repurposed, but the room initially intended for the skin bank is now designated for nurses.

Instead, the room initially allocated for the skin bank has been repurposed into a blood bank. Establishing a skin bank requires formal permission from The Punjab Human Organ Transplantation Authority (PHOTA), a crucial step that appears to have been overlooked in this case. The stance of the South Punjab Health Secretariat, as well as the Burn Unit administration, remains unknown despite attempts to obtain their perspective on this matter.

General Surgeon Dr Naveed, who currently holds an acting additional charge of the burns unit, declined to comment on the issue. The ources within the burn unit have revealed that the skin bank was never activated.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2023.