Medical students urged to help in times of need

KARACHI: Hundreds of volunteers working in the flood-affected areas of the country gathered at Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on Friday to share their experience with new volunteer teams.

The meeting was chaired by DUHS vice-chancellor Prof Masood Hameed Khan who urged for concerted efforts to maintain the volunteer spirit in the flood-hit areas. The vice-chancellor urged the students to realise their responsibilities towards the masses.

He declared it mandatory for every DUHS student to participate in the flood relief work. “Since medical services are direly needed, therefore doctors and students must deliver and for this, they will be supervised by senior faculty members,” said Prof Khan.

Dow Medical College principal Prof Junaid Ashraf said that healthcare services were required in those areas and it was the joint responsibility of doctors, medical students, paramedics and nurses to treat patients not only in hospitals but wherever need may be.

Dr Junaid Ashraf said the DUHS has been sending doctors to the flood-affected areas across Sindh to help and address the health care issues. “There is a growing demand for doctors in the areas and it is now time for doctors to demonstrate their allegiance to the oath they took while receiving their medical degrees,” he said.

DUHS Flood Relief Work chief organiser Dr Rana Qamar Masood outlined what the university and its affiliates had sent. “We have dispatched a heavy contingent of medicines in two trucks along with food and other items in the form of family parcels,” she said. Parcels of medicines contain medicines, syringes, capsules, ORS and eye drops, she added.

The vice-chancellor announced that following a meeting at the Governor’s House, DUHS will depute medical teams in coordination with the ISPR and the armed forces to the flood-hit areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2010.