The country’s first liver transplant centre inaugurated by Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani at Sheikh Zayed Hospital last year has proved a mere “eyewash”, as the transplant centre is still not functional owing to a lack of basic requisite structure and equipment, exposing the hospital administration’s sheer neglect.
No operation theatre after a year: According to details, the country’s “so-called” first liver transplant centre does not have an operation theatre, a High Dependency Unit (HDU) and basic equipment required for a transplant despite a lapse of almost a year. Moreover, the administration provided the capacity of only 10 regular beds and 4 HDU beds at the country’s only liver transplant centre and that too without proper equipment and facility. Senior doctors, privy to the development, revealed that nearly half the expensive equipment purchased for the centre is either not required or is substandard. “The expensive heart lung by-pass machine, the liver dialysis machine and a kind of liver cutting machine are not required, while the lidco cardiac output monitors purchased at the cost of Rs 25 million to monitor heart activity during surgery is non-functional so far,” they said alleging that the hospital administration purchased equipment for the entire hospital from funds meant for the liver transplant centre.
Buying for the rest of the hospital: The capsule endoscopy machine at the cost of more than Rs 20 million and intra cranial pressure (ICP) monitoring machine for nearly Rs 10 million have been purchased by the administration. They said that former chairman Professor Anwar sent a team of doctors abroad on training for liver transplant at a cost of millions of rupees, a majority of whom are not serving in the transplant centre now. They alleged that the furniture for the transplant centre purchased at Rs 5 million for the transplant unit was later handed over to the medical college. Doctors alleged that the administration carried out a “hurried” inauguration for “point-scoring” and securing extensions without proper planning and taking the professionals concerned on board.
A dire situation for
patients: The current scenario has also left a number of poor patients with no other option but to go abroad and bear huge costs for a liver transplant. According to estimate, every 12th person in Pakistan has hepatitis, while every fifth liver transplant happening in India alone is on a Pakistani patient, clearly showing a huge loss of foreign exchange. Senior doctors said that the federal government took the step taking account of people’s plight, but despite a lapse of so much time, the transplant centre has not yet started. Staff at the liver transplant centre said that scores of patients, in a critical condition, keep visiting the centre for a transplant but the facility is not available yet.
‘Lack of doners, not
technology:’ Liver Transplant Centre Project Director Dr Tahir Shafi, who is serving in the hospital after retirement, said that it was decided at time of inauguration that the transplant centre will start with existing facilities and will be later shifted to an upper floor after its completion. “But the floor is still under construction and will be completed in a year depending entirely on the release of funds from the federal government,” he said. Shafi said that the transplant facility is available and it is only because donors, either living or dead, are not willing to donate a liver to patients adding, “The entire technological setup is available but transplants are not being carried out because of non-availability of a donor”. When asked how transplants are being done abroad, he said that people took relatives with them. Commenting on the finances, Shafi said that Rs 170 million were allocated for the project while only Rs 156 million have been spent while the rest have been surrendered to the federal government.
He said that all equipment purchased is required and relevant. To a question, he said that a team of senior doctors were sent abroad on training for liver transplant in 2008 as an attempt to train our own doctors because then no surgeon from abroad was willing to come to Pakistan. “The media should play its role in making people aware that organs can be donated,” he said. To a question, Shafi said that our country does not have enough finances to have separate operation theatres and other facilities for liver transplant and the same is the practice across the world.
One year on, still no liver transplants at Sheikh Zayed Hospital
