25 April 2004	Sunday	04 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, April 24: Director, National Institute of Child Health, Prof Zeenat Isani, on Saturday urged philanthropists to come forward not only for provision of new buildings and equipment for hospitals , but to help these institutions in acquiring skilled manpower and other facilities for patients.

Speaking at the annual children's party at Oncology Unit, held in connection with the Silver Jubilee Year of the Child Aid Association (CAA) at NICH auditorium, she said "We have buildings and equipment but don't have skilled staff to run them, and are facing too much difficulties due to this situation."

"This is a policy of the government not to create new posts but where should we go in this situation?" she questioned and suggested that philanthropists should bear the expenses of salaries of newly-appointed medical staff.

Prof Isani informed the audience that salaries of 30 staff members of the Neonatal Unit were being paid by an NGO and added that globally there were chairs designated to personalities who bear such expenses and this could be practised here as well.

She said: "I am eager to establish a cardiac unit in the NICH and hope this dream would come true in future." She appreciated the efforts of Dr Nizam in service of humanity.

Earlier, Fatima Surriya Bajiya, in her informal speech to children, urged the philanthropists to help destitute people more. She also narrated stories to the children.

CAA President Prof Nizamul Hasan presented the performance report of the association and said that this ceremony was also 5th anniversary of the first Paediatric Oncology Unit of the country, built at the NICH.

He said that the Oncology Unit was established in January, 1999, and was started with one specialist, one medical officer and a couple of paramedical staff, but now it had one specialist, five medical officers, five nurses, ten paramedical staff, one pathologist and four laboratory technicians, all at the payroll of the CAA.

Over 1,000 patients from all over the country had been registered and 150 were provided free treatment and all special laboratory and radiological investigations like CT scans were done free of cost for the needy patients, to provide them relief in the costly treatment of cancer, he said, adding that 70 per cent types of childhood cancer were curable if diagnosed early and treated properly.

Prof Nizam said that at the Oncology Unit, the present cure rate was 50 per cent and it was improving with passage of time. Due to shortage of trained manpower in the fields of Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant, the association had initiated a one-year training programme for technicians, which was duly recognized by the Sindh Board of Paramedical Education and a stipend of Rs2,000 would also be given to encourage candidates, he added.

He said that their next target was to start a BMT Unit at the NICH at an early date, as these facilities only existed at two centres in the country, one being managed privately, while the other was an Army Unit at Rawalpindi, which were overloaded and were not children-specific.

"We have problem of trained staff in this field and hope this will be resolved by the cooperation of members of APNA (Pakistani Physicians in USA)," he said, adding that financial constraints were another issue, as each BMT cost Rs1.2 million and we were working on this.

Guest of honour, former test cricketer Waqar Hasan, appreciated the services of CAA and announced to donate Rs0.1 million for the betterment of children being treated at the NICH.

General secretary of the association, Dr Najma Sayeed, gave vote of thanks. Director, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Dr Qazi Abdul Shakoor, was also present at the occasion.-PPI