LAHORE: The liver transplant unit of Shaikh Zayed Hospital is at its worst mainly due to denial of funds sanction by the Punjab government earlier.

Sources told Dawn that 49 patients on the ‘waiting list’ for liver transplant had died due to `critical shortage’ of funds, trained human resource and infrastructure.

He said not a single penny was given to the SZH by the government from the sanctioned grant of Rs300 million -- approved in the last budget. He said 105 more patients, currently on the waiting list, might face an identical fate if situation did not improve.

The SZH is the only public sector institute which has brought distinction to the country worldwide by conducting 85 successful liver transplant procedures with better success ratio.


49 patients on ‘waiting list’ die


The official said the ‘first-year survival of post-liver transplantation’ carried out at the SZH was 90.78 per cent that was the second best after India in the region while same was very close to that reported in America.

The institute clinched another distinction as no ‘donor mortality’ was reported during these procedures.

Sharing more data, he said that out of total 1303 patients examined at the SZH during last four years or so, 271 were shortlisted for the procedure.

Later, he said, 107 of them died due to end-stage liver disease before any procedure besides 49 others.

However, he said, the SZH hospital conducted successful transplant procedures on 85 patients in a `very odd situation’. Of them, he said, around 50 were carried out with the support of the present management of the institute.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government announced country’s largest and highly expensive project in the health sector – Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute (PKLI) in Lahore -- by allocating Rs15 billion funds.

“Ignoring the worries of dying patients, the government didn’t release a single penny for the SZH liver transplant unit from Rs300 funds approved in the last annual development programme”, the official lamented.

The institute which was willing to carry out more liver transplants got in trouble as the health department bureaucracy raised multiple objections to the PC-I forwarded for the approval of funds, he said.

Last month, he said, a team of Chinese liver transplant experts visited the Shaikh Zayed Hospital on the invitation of the Punjab government. “After inspecting the unit, the team was shocked how 85 successful liver transplants had been carried in a poorly-equipped facility.”

Before leaving the country, he said the Chinese delegation praised the efforts of the SZH management and the liver transplant surgeons but strongly expressed its reservations on poor infrastructure and arrangements. It later sent a set of observations to the Punjab government.

The official said amid this grave situation, 105 more patients referred by the Punjab government to the SZH for liver transplant assessment were facing risk of life due to delay in the timely procedure.

Last week, he said, the liver transplant of another patient was postponed twice when surgeons failed to get nursing and other supporting staff besides funds.

The 52-year-old patient Isqat had come from Muzafargarrh for the procedure after a local member of the provincial assembly took up the challenge of bearing expenses on his liver transplant.

“The intensive care unit of the Arslan Ward (liver unit) of the Shaikh Zayed Hospital has been closed for the last three months or so due to non-availability of funds and staff”, the official said.

He said the doctors had no other option but to use ‘common ICU’ for the post-operative care of the patients, which increased chances of contracting infections.

He said total 128 posts for supporting staff, including nurses and paramedics, were announced for this unit at the SZH a couple of years back.

The entire staff hired against these positions was later on transferred to other departments of the institute except a few nurses and paramedics, he lamented.

Health secretary Najam Shah did not respond to phone calls and text messages when Dawn tried to get his version.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2016

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