KARACHI, May 9: People suffering from liver and lower stomach diseases say that the federal government-run centre at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre is unable to cater out-patients on a large scale.

Interviews with patients and other stakeholders at the centre, the Pakistan Medical Research Council Centre for Gastroenterology and Hepatology, revealed that the government was mainly meeting the salary expenditure of 15-20 staff, among whom are researchers, doctors, lab personnel and other supporting staff.

It is learnt that mostly the patients come to the centre from Jinnah hospital or other health centres of the city or from the interior of Sindh under a referral system for the specialised diagnostic and clinical and therapeutic procedures that were undertaken at the centre. Patients largely belong to the lower income strata who can not afford treatments at private hospitals.

A couple of patients at the centre’s OPD on Wednesday said that they had to wait for a considerable period of time for consultation. “After some interviews, the staff concerned had given me the appointment for today,” said a woman patient, urging the authorities to arrange for a system under which patients could be able to see a doctor on their first visit without wasting time.

A staff claimed that the centre was not an open-to-all facility like other OPDs, but a host of patients visited and wanted to be accommodated for a first time consultation which was not possible for the centre as it was not being resourced properly.

In the absence of standard procedures and sophisticated equipment at most other government hospitals in the city, the utility and importance of the PMRC Centre cannot be denied, but the system of finalising appointments with doctors in advance helps maintain a discipline and provide sufficient time to a doctor and patient for consultation and examinations, according to another staff member.

He expressed the view that a couple of government institutions were provided with state-of-the-art equipment and endoscopes for liver and gastrointestinal diseases procedures but these could not be utilised properly for want of expert hands in a required number.

Tracing the history of the centre, a senior staff member said that it had been established under the health ministry as a research cell in 1968 and Prof Sarwar Jahan Zuberi, who also spared some of her personal lab-equipment for the purpose, had put in great efforts in its establishment. It was designated as gastroenterology research unit of the government in 1977 and finally adopted by PMRC.

A long-term follow up is done on patients suffering from peptic ulcer disease, inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis, tuberculosis of GI tract, mal absorptive disorders, cancer of the GI tract, gall bladder disease, acute and chronic hepatitis, and complications like portal hypertension, hepatic coma, etc.

Medicines are also provided free of cost to the deserving patients while the centre performs different tests and undertakes procedures and treatment at an affordable cost, comparatively much less than what is charged by private hospitals. It gets 1,000 to 1,500 new patients every year, in addition to old patients needing follow-ups. About 70 patients are seen on two out-patient days every week whereas on the remaining working days, therapeutic procedures, diagnostic procedures and biopsies are undertaken. All this involves three-four doctors and a couple of biochemists and microbiologists.

Dr Waqaruddin Ahmed, Director of the PMRC centre, said that the centre was established with the aim of organising, promoting and coordinating research in the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary disorders whereas the routine services provided at the centre included diagnostic upper GI endoscopy, therapeutic upper GI endoscopy, placement of plastic or self-expandable metallic stents in the oesophagus, biostatistics and its application in medicine.

He said that the centre worked on out-patients basis while long term follow up was done on patients suffering from all kind of liver and GI related disorders.

He said that efforts were being made for increasing manpower and introduction of some new machines to ease out the situation.

He said that philanthropic support was contributing a lot to the provision of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to patients from across the province.