KARACHI, Dec 7: Provincial Health Secretary Prof Naushad Shaikh has said that the state-of-art burns centre of the Civil Hospital Karachi will start functioning from Dec 13.

Addressing a news briefing at the premises of the centre on Tuesday, the secretary said that the centre would be inaugurated by Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad.

He said that the 50-bed centre was built with a cost of Rs50 million, funded by a philanthropist organization - the Friends of Burns Centre. The Sindh government had provided a plot for the centre besides Rs8 million for its construction, he added.

Prof Shaikh told newsmen that the centre, equipped with latest gadgets and laboratory, was comprised of a modern operation theatre and a nine-bed Intensive Care Unit. He said that a skin bank and tissue culture laboratory would also be established in the centre in the near future.

He said that treatment of burns patients was a complicated job and many hospitals simply refused admitting these patients. It was a giant project in which free medical services would be provided to the patients, he said adding that the average cost to cure a patient is around Rs25,000.

The secretary said that the Civil Hospital was the only hospital in the province where heart surgery and bypass operations were carried out without any financial burden on patients.

Abdullah Feroze and Arjimand Qazi of the philanthropist organization told newsmen that the Rangoonwalla Centre, Infaque Foundation and a lot of schoolchildren had contributed funds for the burns centre.

They said that the centre would be run by a 10-member board, having equal representation from the government and private sector. They said that the new burns centre would be an exemplary healthcare centre if it were let run at its own. They said such a centre would also be set up in Hyderabad in future. -PPI