February 28, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 10, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: The government is considering building two more hospitals in the capital to provide quality health service to the patients.

Executive Director Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Dr Fazle Hadi said this while speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Dr Hadi said that they had proposed to the government to build two 500-bed hospitals at G-12 and Chak Shahzad, as the capital hospitals were too overburdened to effectively handle the patients.

He said the government was planning to build the two hospitals and paper work had been started in this regard. He said the bed capacity of the two hospitals would be increased by 500 each after some time.

Dr Hadi said the hospital was terribly overburdened, as 3,500 patients daily visited the hospital while one million laboratory tests and 150,000 X-rays were conducted annually.

He said the hospital administration had appointed five quality assurance managers in the departments of emergency, pathology and radiology, OPD and medicine for maintenance of quality control.

The hospital generated about Rs7 million revenue annually which was deposited with the finance ministry, he said, adding the administration had proposed to the government to give financial autonomy to the hospital for providing better services.

The revenue is likely to increase to Rs250million with the commissioning of Hospital Tower, he said. He said 360 beds were reserved for the general public, while 140 beds were reserved for the private patients.

Talking about Pims Symposium 2007, he said it would be held from March 2-4 and 180 research papers would be read on the occasion.

The hospital administration will award 15 gold, sliver and bronze medals to the participants under the name of Muslim Researchers of Medicines, he added.

LIVER TRANSPLANT: The country’s first liver transplant unit will be set up at PIMS with an estimated cost of Rs400 million, reports APP news agency.

Renowned gastroenterologist Prof (Dr) Javed Aslam Butt of Pims said this while addressing a seminar on “Paradigm shift in hepatitis-C treatment” here on Tuesday.

He said PC-1 of the project has been prepared and work on the project would be started soon. He said Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore would be the first hospital in the country to start liver transplant.

He said such facility would be cost-effective as such treatment is very expensive in abroad while in Pakistan it would cost Rs1 to Rs1.5 million.

Dr Graham R. Foster, Professor of Hepatology, Centre for Gastroenterology Barts and the London Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry said in the treatment of hepatitis-C numerous steps have been taken for the last 10 years.

He said many medicines were available in the market for treatment of the disease, adding, it was responsibility of doctors to suggest suitable and standard medicines to the patient.

Dr James O’Beirne, Consultant Hepatologist, Department of Medicine, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street London said during next 15 to 20 years more advanced treatment would be available for hepatitis-C as research work is in progress.