KHAIRPUR: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Thursday inaugurated the liver transplan­tation centre established at a cost of Rs917 million at the Gambat Institute of Medical Science (GIMS) in Gambat town, some 40 kilometres from here. He also announced the upgrading of the institute to a university.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, the chief minister expressed his hope that the centre would go a long way in providing free-of-cost liver transplantation to the people. He observed that hepatitis cases were on the rise and the number of such cases was causing an alarm in the province. He noted that a liver transplantation cost between Rs6 and Rs7 million which a person belonging to the lower or middle class could not afford it. That’s why, he said, the government provided all it could in establishing the centre to offer free of cost treatment and transplantation facility to the people without any discrimination.

Mr Shah said the people of Sindh and its neighbouring areas would now be receiving free of cost angiography, open heart surgery, kidney and liver transplantation and treatment of all related diseases at the GIMS. The institution, he noted, had the capacity of providing OPD services to 4,000 patients a day.

The chief minister lauded the selfless services of the country’s leading kidney specialist and head of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi and GIMS Director Dr Rahim Bux Bhatti to the ailing humanity across the country.

He said his government accorded top priority to the health and education centres. He made mention of the National Institute of Cardio Vascular Diseases at Karachi and said that it was being revamped at a cost of Rs8 billion while a 15-storey hospital building was being built there to provide free of cost treatment of heart ailments to the poor and needy patients. “Such major initiatives were not possible before the related institutions were devolved to the provincial government,” he said.

The chief minister also appreciated the spirit and dedication demonstrated by the eight-member team of liver transplant experts from Germany in establishing the Liver Transplant Centre at the GIMS and noted that the team members opted for serving the ailing humanity in a climate and environment they were not used to.

Mr Shah held out the assurance that adequate financial assistance would be provided to the GIMS in the next financial year.

In his speech, Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar said that the transplantation centre established at the GIMS was the first of its kind at the public sector health facility. Executing the project without government’s financial assistance was not possible, he added.

He appreciated Dr Bhatti’s relentless efforts in establishing the centre within a short period of six months.

In his welcome address, Dr Bhatti highlighted salient features of the centre and said establishment of a cancer hospital in Gambat to offer free of cost treatment was also on the cards. He said he and his team had started serving the ailing humanity from a small dispensary that had now become GIMS, a major hospital complex of the country. He expressed his confidence that Gambat town would soon become the centre of healthcare providers where all sorts of modern health facilities would be available free of cost.

Prof Dr Baker, who heads the German team experts, and Health Secretary Dr Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo also spoke.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2016