Upgrade needed: Liver transplant centre exists in name only

Pims has stopped carrying out surgeries due to inadequate facilities.

ISLAMABAD:

A plan to revamp the Liver Transplant Centre at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has recently been submitted to the federal government.

If approved, the centre will be housed in a custom-built building and specialists will be hired to carry out liver transplants.

“This has been done to secure the future of the centre which is currently at stake due to ill-planning, poor infrastructure and lack of interest,” said Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Pims Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof. Javed Akram.

“There is a dire need to revamp the liver transplant centre. Since its establishment only one live donor liver transplant has been carried out, which resulted in the patient’s death.”

The project was started in haste in June 2011 due to which it is not been able to deliver, he stated, while speaking to The Express Tribune. “Though the project was executed on the former prime minister’s directive, no one focused on its sustainability.”

The hospital administration has stopped carrying out liver transplants for the time being because it is impossible to perform them in the existing facility, said Prof. Javed Akram.

“There is no separate operation theatre or intensive care unit for patients who undergo liver transplant, making them vulnerable to hospital-acquired infections which causes complications and usually results in death.”

Once the PC-1 is approved it, professionals will be hired and it will be run in accordance with international standards, he said.

The centre employs a staff of 30 who are on contract and need to be regularised as soon as possible, according to the VC.

Sources in Pims said Rs200 million were given to the hospital by the federal government to make it a state-of the-art facility, but most of the amount was utilised for other projects.

Only a small chunk of the money was used to renovate an old portion of the hospital which was renamed as the Liver Transplant Centre, added an official.

Formerly, the hospital administration was interested in the project, because of the money coming in for the project. No one knows how much of the amount was actually spent and how much was diverted to personal bank accounts, said sources.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2014.