LAHORE: The Punjab Human Organs Transplantation Authority (PHOTA) has issued permission for bone marrow transplant to the Children’s Hospital, the first such facility in the public sector in the province.

A PHOTA team had inspected the bone marrow transplant centre at the Children’s Hospital in March and expressed satisfaction over the facilities available for the complicated surgical procedure, said an official of the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department on Monday.

Every year approximately 5,000 children required bone marrow transplant and a majority of them died. Some types of diseases of the children living with thalassaemia and cancer are curable through this procedure.

Bone marrow transplant was available in the private sector in three major cities, including Karachi, one of the largest centres, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. However, parents had to bear Rs4 million for each bone marrow transplant at one of these private centres.

Poor patients will get free treatment at 60-bed centre

The official said the 60-bed facility at the Children’s Hospital in Lahore for bone marrow transplant would be absolutely free.

To a question, the official said the project was delayed for years primarily due to lack of trained manpower and funds.

Children’s Hospital was fully implementing [international] standard operating procedures (SOPs) for infection control. “Infection-free environment is a must for fast healing of wounds and early recovery of patients in such complicated surgeries. Children’s Hospital has also approached the Drugs Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) for getting permission to import such medicines which are essential for the treatment of bone marrow patients but not registered in Pakistan. A formal permission is likely to be granted within days” said the official.

Institute of Child Health and Children’s Hospital dean Prof Masood Sadiq said the first five patients had already been selected for bone marrow operations at the newly-completed centre that would provide treatment and surgical facilities to patients suffering from cancer, haematology and bone marrow disorders.

The poor and deserving patients would avail themselves of treatment facilities at this centre free of cost, he said.

This year some 20 bone marrow transplant operations would be performed. And from next year, some 30 children would be operated upon at the centre, completed at a cost of Rs260 million.

The in-charge of the bone marrow transplant centre, Dr Mehvish Faizan, had got two years training in Birmingham Hospital, the UK. Another six doctors and six nurses were trained as master trainers in Sindh National Institute of Blood Diseases, Karachi. The master trainers have trained more than 60 doctors, nurses and paramedics.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2017