No money, no doctors: Pims liver transplant centre becoming white elephant

The centre was haphazardly opened in 2012; only one surgery conducted to date.

ISLAMABAD: The city’s only liver transplant centre (LTC) at a public hospital has failed to fulfill its purpose due to financial constraints and a shortage of experts.

The Rs200 million centre was established in June 2011 and the first surgery was carried out in May 2012. The procedure was unsuccessful as the patient died of complications soon after. Since then no liver transplants have been carried out.

“The previous government set up the centre in haste just for the sake of taking credit and did not bother to consider that it needed a well-trained team and huge sum of money to continue functioning in the long-term,” said a senior doctor who is working closely with the LTC and also looks after the Pims administration department.



Talking to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, the doctor said that it seems strange that such a big project was initiated without a team of experts.

“Recently, a senior LTC doctor who will retire within a few months went abroad for a two-week long training, but short-term training does not fulfill the requirement. To run the centre successfully, there is a need to give one-year training to the entire team,” said the doctor.

Calling foreign surgeons to perform transplants is not a long-term solution. The LTC should have its own well-trained team to carry out the transplant on its own and ensure the sustainability of the patient after the surgery, said the doctor.

Professor Riaz Warriach, the former executive director Pims, was actively trying to resolve the issue. He was in touch with renowned Indian liver surgeon Dr Subash Gupta who was supposed to come to Pims to perform liver transplants and also tried to bring few other experts from Lahore.

But due to administrative issues such as changing of the status of Pims to university and the subsequent removal of Prof Warriach on Islamabad High Court orders, all efforts went in vain, said the doctor.

The doctor added that the hospital administration is unable to bear the cost of liver transplant surgeries, as each procedure costs between four and five million rupees.

“Before the establishment of the LTC, everybody knew about the costs involved, but no one cared as the only goal was to start the centre,” said the doctor.

Meanwhile, another doctor at LTC said whenever there is a heavy rain, the roof of the centre --- housed in an old operation theatre --- and the adjacent doctors’ cafeteria and changing room leaks.

“It is a sensitive area and such things create an unhygienic environment for patients,” said the doctor.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Iqbal Memon said, “Liver transplants will be carried out only when the LTC will get well-trained professionals and ample funding.”

He said there is a need to send the LTC team abroad for training.

“The question is how and who will send them abroad and where the money will come from,” said Memon.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2013.