PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa finance department has agreed to allocate Rs500 million for the establishment of two bone marrow and liver transplant centres in Peshawar to help patients with blood-related diseases and damaged livers.

Officials told Dawn that the finance department would announce the allocation of Rs300 million for the bone marrow transplant centre at the Regional Blood Centre, Hayatabad, and Rs200 for the liver transplant centre at the Institute of Kidney Diseases of the Hayatabad Medical Complex to be relocated to the Khyber Medical University afterwards.

They said the funding would be available for both centres in the upcoming three-month budget to be announced by the provincial government.

Vice-Chancellor of the Khyber Medical University Prof Ziaul Haq appreciated Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur for approving two bone marrow and liver transplant centres for the provincial capital and said that those health facilities were direly needed for people either suffering from blood-related diseases or having damaged livers.

Rs500 million to be announced in forthcoming three-month budget

“We have already started building the KMU’s hospital and research centre, which will also have a liver transplant centre. It will cost around Rs3.3 billion. However, if the government provides an initial Rs300 million, the KMU will hire a specialised team to start hematology and transplant services in an agreement with the Institute of Kidney Diseases at the Hayatabad Medical Complex,” he told Dawn.

Prof Zia said the transplant centre could be put up in four to five months’ time by the KMU team with the IKD’s help.

He said that the KMU’s hospital and research centre would be ready for inauguration in the second week of June, while the outpatient department would become operational thereafter.

The VC said that the university had already briefed health minister Syed Qasim Ali Shah about the matter with a request for the grant of a Rs300 million grant to start a liver transplant centre at the IKD and shift it to the KMU later on.

He said that work on the bone marrow transplantation had already got under way on the instructions of the Peshawar High Court, and around Rs600 million was required for the initiative.

“The KMU can commit half of the cost along with skilled staff members. If the government provides the remaining Rs300 million, we can start haematology services in two months and the first transplant by October 2024,” he said.

Prof Zia said the federal government granted approval in 2014 to the project titled “Establishment of Research Institute of Haepatology, Haepatobiliary, Pancreatic Surgery and Transplantation and Research Institute of Diabetology, Endocrinology and NCDs.”

He said that a medical complex was supposed to be put up to house a development and dissemination centre, an epidemiological data centre, clinical trial unit, a diagnostic pathology unit, OPDs, a liver transplant unit, a diagnostic radiology centre, consultant’s offices, a blood bank, a specimen storing area and a casualty department.

Also, research equipment for the endoscopy section, radiology and pathology department, general equipment, operation rooms, and ICU are required to make the institute operational, according to him.

The VC said that the project was approved in November 2016, while civil work on it began in January 2017 and was supposed to be completed in January 2020.

He said that most people couldn’t afford the cost of a liver transplant, and therefore, an institute would be required for the diagnosis and treatment of liver-related issues.

Prof Zia added that 50 per cent of the work on the initiative had already been completed.

He said people from the province had to visit other provinces for the diagnosis and treatment of liver issues as their province didn’t have such facilities.

“It will be an extraordinary initiative by the present government to launch bone marrow and liver transplant centres in the province to benefit residents,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2024