PESHAWAR: The Institute of Kidney Diseases at the public sector Hayatabad Medical Complex has planned to carry out the first free renal transplant under the Sehat Card Plus programme early next month.

The public sector IKD, a pioneer in renal transplantation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, conducted around 300 surgical procedures until 2022 but stopped them after retirement of lead transplant surgeon Prof Asif Malik.

The institute resumed transplantation last month after formally engaging senior transplant surgeon of the Pakistan Liver and Kidney Institute, Lahore, Prof Saeed Akhtar.

Under an agreement, the institute will conduct a couple of transplants every month under the supervision of Prof Saeed. The number will increase as the IKD’s surgeons have the required facilities to do surgical procedures independently.

Medics undergo training in Islamabad

Fifteen IKD staff members, including transplant surgeons, nephrologists, anesthetists, a nurse and an operating theatre technician, underwent a two weeks training programme in Islamabad last month and learned about renal transplantation and subsequent patient management.

Officials told Dawn that under its flagship Sehat Card Plus programme, the PTI government was providing free health services to 7.7 million families of the province and 1.6 million of tribal districts.

They said a total of 97 renal transplants had so far been carried out in the province under it.

The officials, however, said the IKD hadn’t done a single renal procedure under the SCP programme.

They said a total of 96 transplants had been performed in privately-owned Rehman Medical Institute and one at the North West General Hospital.

The officials said the government had been persuading the public sector institute to cover more and more patients under the scheme to earn more for distribution among staff and for service improvement.

They said the institute had approached the health department for the release of Rs10 million grant annually to do transplantation on a ‘sustainable basis’, but the grant was awaited.

Urologist Dr Fazal Manan, who is the focal person for renal transplants at the IKD, told Dawn that another transplant had been planned under the SCP initiative in August.

“We have the best facilities and human resources, which will benefit renal patients,” he said.

He said chairman of the Board of Governors Sahibzada Mohammad Saeed and IKD director Prof Mazhar Khan were in contact with the health department to begin free procedures on the premises.

“We are also waiting for availability of Prof Saeed Akhtar. The IKD will start doing procedures on its own after 10 cases supervised by him,” he said.

Dr Fazaql said the IKD would provide each patient with one-year immunosuppressant, which cost Rs40,000 per month in addition to the management of any emergency such as re- admission, management of rejection or any other complication free of charge.

He said the man, who underwent transplant last month, was an Afghan national and wasn’t eligible for free transplant under the SCP programme.

“Four patients, including residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, are on the waiting list for transplantation under the SCP initiative. We have sent the cases for approval to the Medical Transplantation Regulatory Authority and once that approval comes, we will go ahead with transplantation plans,” he said.

Officials said the health department established the MTRA in Feb 2018 with the public sector IKD becoming the first institute in the province to transplant kidneys.

They said the initiative was meant to control illegal renal transplants, register and equip hospitals for lawful transplants and train doctors to begin procedures in regional hospitals of the province.

The officials said the province introduced the Social Health Protection Initiative, branded as SCP under which each family is entitled to free medication of Rs1 million per year.

They, however, said the people requiring renal and liver transplantation were given Rs1.4 million and Rs5 million, respectively.

The officials said all 23 liver transplants had been done outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the facility wasn’t available in the province.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2022