PESHAWAR: The Burn and Plastic Surgery Centre at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, has decided to launch fellowship programme to impart training to medics from Asian countries in trauma management due to its vast experience of coping with the victims of terrorism.

Prof Tahmeedullah, the director of the centre, told Dawn that the decision was made in a meeting of Asian Federation of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (APRAS).

He said that they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding during a five-day conference in Japan according to which surgeons from the member countries would be imparted training to enhance their skills.

Prof Tahmeed, who is also president of Pakistan Association of Plastic Surgeons (PAPS), said that it was agreed upon in the conference that a country having experience in resolving certain problems would impart three-month fellowship to the doctors of member countries.

Prof Tahmeed says Pakistan has long history of dealing with victims of terrorism

“Pakistan has long history of dealing with violence-stricken people. Therefore, we would impart training to the medics in dealing with the management of trauma cases,” he said.

He said that the meeting held in Nagasaki last week was attended by delegates from Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Philippines, Malaysia and Pakistan wherein representatives made presentation regarding the load and management of burn and plastic surgery patients and decided to share one another’s expertise in dealing with different cases.

The meeting was also attended by Prof Obaidullah, the head of plastic surgery department at North West General Hospital and Research Centre, who made presentation on hypospadiology and Prof Ghulam Qadir Fayaz talked about cleft palate repair in Pakistan.

Prof Tahmeed said that the participants of the event agreed that all the member countries had similar issues regarding burns and plastic surgery but their resources were different. Some countries were highly resourceful while other lagged behind due to lack of expertise because of limited resources, he said.

He said that the fellowship also included multi-centre research to know about the causes and mitigation of issues. He said that Japan, Singapore and other countries had very established health system and the rest of the states would be sending their doctors and other staff for training in stem cell therapy and other areas of the plastic surgery specialties.

Prof Tahmeed said that the delegates showed immense interest in their presentations regarding trauma management and resolved to benefit from the experience as other countries had fewer trauma cases compared to Pakistan, especially Peshawar-based plastic surgeons, who had been dealing with the terrorism-affected cases.

“Not only violence, but we have more burn injuries caused by leakage of gas and eruption of fire in factories that caused injuries to hundreds of people,” he said. The collaboration, he added, would benefit the local patients requiring high specialised services due to presence of fellows from Japan and other countries.

He said that the specialty of plastic surgery was very old in Japan and Singapore where surgeons had developed best techniques that would be transferred to their colleagues in the member countries. “We have already started collaboration with Khyber Medical University to impart training to students in management of burn cases,” said Prof Tahmeed.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2023