January 24, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 14, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 23: The federal health ministry has decided not to send the Human Organ Transplantation Authority’s (HOTA) inspection team to the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), Karachi, for the time being.

The reason the SIUT is being skipped in the current round of inspections is that the public sector institute has expressed reservations about the composition of the inspection team. However, a member of HOTA has pointed out that the SIUT should have identified the exact members of the team it had doubts about so that appropriate action could have been taken.

The HOTA team from Islamabad on Jan 23 started its maiden inspection visits to various medical institutions in the city, which undertake organ transplant activities and have been given provisional permission to carry out transplantations under the Transplantation of Human Organ and Tissues Ordinance, 2007, promulgated by the president of Pakistan last September.

Aside from the SIUT, four medical institutions have been included in the current round of inspections, including the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) in the public sector and the Kidney Centre, Liaquat National Hospital and Karachi National Hospital in the private sector.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, Maj-Gen (retd) A.Q. Usmani, the administrator of the monitoring authority of HOTA, said that in view of a recent letter received from the SIUT that expressed objections over the composition of the inspection team meant for Karachi and its (SIUT’s) unwillingness to receive it in its present form, the federal secretary of health had advised him not to visit the institute during this round of inspections.

Gen Usmani is heading a seven member team approved by the federal government for physical verification of claims made by the medical institutions already given interim recognition by HOTA.

In all, three teams have been constituted for inspections of transplant institutions across the country. The team notified in the case of Karachi institutions comprised Gen Usmani as administrator of HOTA, Prof Khurshid Anwar of PIMS, Prof Tahir Shafi (Lahore), Prof Nausheen Yousuf (Lahore), Dr Asif Pervez (Multan), Dr Millat Hassan (Lahore) and a representative of WHO.

However, according to the HOTA administrator, Dr Nausheen and Dr Millat could not reach Karachi due to other pressing engagements.

He said that the HOTA teams, which were about to complete the verification tasks in four to five days, would furnish their findings and recommendations to the monitoring authority, established under Section 8 of the ordinance in question and headed by the federal health minister, by the end of January.

He further said that institutions which got positive marks would be accorded permanent recognition in the fourth meeting of HOTA, while the deficient ones would be asked to remove the objections first.

Speaking about to the SIUT’s grievances, Gen Usmani said that he had received a formal letter from the institute regarding its objection on the composition and inclusion of a couple of persons in the inspection team and monitoring authority established under Section 8 of the Transplantation Ordinance, 2007.

‘Why were the persons not named?’

“However, I was surprised to note that the SIUT had failed to name the persons, who, according to it, were linked to unethical practices as far as the transplantation of human kidneys or other organs was concerned,” he said.

He claimed that to the best of his knowledge, the members included in various inspection teams were all reliable personalities and most of them were practising doctors. “The SIUT should have pointed out the disputed persons so that the situation could be rectified accordingly,” he said.

“I feel that the SIUT is a model and competent institution and I also respect its head, Prof Adibul Hasan Rizvi. I wish it could guide us in running the affairs of HOTA in a foolproof and dignified manner,” Gen Usmani added, saying that the government at no cost would allow any unethical or unlawful transplants in the country.

Replying to a question, he said that any inspection of the SIUT would now be made only when the federal health ministry would ask the HOTA to do so.

In the meantime, on Tuesday the HOTA inspection team visited the JPMC and the Kidney Centre, while it will go to two of the remaining private hospitals on Wednesday.

Gen Usmani said that the inspection team meant for medical institutions of Lahore/Bahawalpur and Multan had already completed its job, while the team for Rawalpindi/Islamabad had to postpone the exercise halfway in the wake of the situation that emerged in the twin cities following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. “The remaining institutions of Rawalpindi and Islamabad will now be inspected on Jan 27 and 28,” he added.