LAHORE: The largest kidney transplant programme of the public sector in Punjab at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital (SZH) has been reportedly ‘shut down’ due to ‘internal politics’ as no procedure has been done at this facility for the last two-and-half-months or so.

The ‘dispute’ of appointment of the head of ‘urology and kidney transplant unit’ has, according to reports, led to closure of this critical facility.

Sixty patients and donors whose cases have been approved by the Human Organ Transplant Authority (HOTA) and all other relevant sections are awaiting renal transplant since the programme’s closure. The health condition of many of them is reportedly deteriorating with each passing day despite undergoing dialysis twice a day.

Move puts lives of 160 patients in need of renal transplant at risk

A list of over 100 more patients is lying pending for the same procedure but the facility is not available for them now, an official privy to the information told Dawn.

He said the Shaikh Zayed Hospital was the only public sector hospital in the province which had the ‘largest ever kidney transplant programme” in Punjab. Unfortunately, this critical facility was not been available in any other mega teaching hospital in the provincial capital, including the Mayo Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Services Hospital, until the Lahore General Hospital started this programme by conducting two kidney transplant procedures a couple of months back. However, the official said, the Shaikh Zayed Hospital had been taking lead being a pioneer in starting kidney transplant facility and producing the FCPS nephrologists in the government sector.

On average, it was conducting the renal transplant of 70 patients every year and it had conducted over 800 such critical procedures since the establishment of the department.

Unfortunately, the official regretted, this programme was shut down after the split of the unit into two. He linked the closure with the “internal politics” of the hospital, saying the programme suffered a major dent after the split of the unit into two sections on April 17 this year to allegedly favour some doctors.

The action was taken to abolish the ‘unification’ of the two departments – Urology and Kidney Transplant – converting it into two separate units.

The unification of the departments was done during the tenure of the previous chairman of the Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Prof Farid Ahmad Khan, after seeking approval of the board of governors (BoG).

Prof Hafiz Shahzad was appointed head of the ‘Urology & Kidney Transplant Department,’ he said.

The official said the programme was flourishing at the SZH by conducting two kidney transplants every week on average after the unification of the departments one-and-a-half years back. However, the present management split the department on the suggestions of some senior medics who were enjoying good terms with Prof Farid.

Resultantly, the renal transplant programme was closed down after the management replaced Prof Hafiz Shahzad by associate professor Muzamil Tahir, directing him to head urology unit. It also transferred all the PG trainees and other doctors to the said unit, directing Prof Hafiz to look after the kidney unit only.

Interestingly, the official lamented that the ‘kidney transplant specialty’ given under the supervision of Hafiz Shahzad exists nowhere in any part of the country. “It has no legal status as it is neither recognised by the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan nor by Pakistan Medical & Dental Council,” he argued.

This department has been left with only three senior doctors – Prof Hafiz Shahzad, Assistant Professor Dr Nadir Hussain and Senior Registrar Dr Nasir Ibrahim, he said.

The official added that on protest, the hospital management made available services of a woman medical officer (WMO), Dr Sobia, who had done postgraduation in plastic surgery and another MO from pulmonology department, making fun of the kidney transplant facility.

Consequently, no kidney transplant was performed in the last two-and-a-half months, endangering lives of dozens of the patients requiring surgery to get a second lease of life, he regretted.

Shaikh Zayed Hospital Chairman Prof Kamran Hussain also blamed the ‘internal politics’ as one of the major reasons behind the sorry state of affairs regarding kidney transplant programme, holding Prof Hafiz Shahzad primarily responsible for this.

“The unification of the urology & kidney departments done by previous regime through the board of governors (BoG) was against the spirit of the Lahore High Court’s decision,” he said and denied the information that the hospital management had not provided the PGs and other junior doctors to the ‘kidney transplant unit’ after bifurcation.

He said he had referred 12 junior doctors to work at the unit to start renal transplant but Prof Hafiz Shahzad refused to own them due to reasons best known to him.

“Prof Hafiz was hired as renal transplant surgeon, not as the urologist at the institute,” the chairman said and added that the senior urologist in the same institute deserved to head the urology unit.

He said a committee, comprising six senior professors of the institute, had been formed to resolve the issue in the best interests of the patients who were in dire need of liver transplant, confirming that presently 60 patients were ready to undergo this critical procedure.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018