KARACHI, Jan 25: The fifth symposium of the Liaquat National Hospital on "Evolving Medical Care: 50 Years and Beyond" and the hospital's golden jubilee celebrations concluded here on Saturday.

During the celebrations, about 20 different scientific sessions, 24 workshops, debates, mela and live video conference were held. Besides, an awareness week was also observed. Local, national and international experts participated in the programmes.

To acknowledge the efforts put in by the LNH doctors and staffers to make the programme a success, life-time achievement awards were given to the chairman of LNH's governing body, Syed Wajid Ali Shah; and the first Medical Director of LNH, late Dr Abdullah Hussaini.

During the day-long activities on Saturday, a seminar titled, "Accountability in Medical Profession" was held. At the seminar, experts underlined the need for strict enforcement of regulatory standards in the profession.

Justice (Retd) Mohammad Ali Sayeed; LNH Medical Director, Dr Salman Faridi; Editor-in-Chief of daily Business Recorder, Wamiq Zuberi; vice-chancellor of Dow Medical university, Prof Masood Hameed; and the general secretary of Pakistan Medical Association, Dr Sher Shah Syed spoke at the seminar.

The speakers stressed that regulatory bodies, public organizations and the press must play their role in bringing accountability into health sector. Prof Masood Hameed observed that an ethical code in medical profession was essential adding that many problems arise because of inadequate accountability.

According to him, publicity in the media creates doubts about medical profession and he suggested the health professionals to avoid unnecessary publicity. Instead, he suggested that doctors should make efforts to educate the masses about prevention of diseases.

Prof Sher Shah Syed said that though all details regarding code of ethics about the profession existed in the medical textbooks, the same were neither practised nor any efforts were made to get them implemented.

Expressing his concern over massive surge in the number of quacks, he challenged the legality of advertisement beamed on electronic media and published in print media to project, what he felt as, non-qualified homeopaths and hakeems.

The situation turned all the more serious with strong promotional activities, which should not be printed at least in the national press, he remarked.

Dr Sher Shah observed that such ads were misleading the poorand uneducated people. He urged the concerned authorities as well as the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to play its due role in an effective manner.

Dr Salman Faridi said that the hospital administrations in general and the PMDC had legal rights to take action against doctors found negligent towards their professional responsibilities. He suggested that the patients' attendants should be taken into confidence on every sensitive matter regarding health of the patients.

Justice Muhammad Ali Sayeed opined that all rules and regulations related to practice of medicine must be implemented in true letter and spirit. In another programme on the concluding day of the LNH celebrations, former chief justice of Federal Shariat Court, Justice (Retd) Mahboob Ahmed; vice-chancellor of Riphah University, Islamabad, Prof Anis Ahmed; Dr Shoaib Afzal Beg; Farhat Anis of The News International; and Dr Shakil Aqil deliberated on ethical issues in ending the life of a patient suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition.

The speakers agreed that Euthanasia was a very sensitive and controversial issue involving legal, religious, social, moral and emotional aspects. The issue had been frequently discussed in the medical world, they said. However, it was observed that active Euthanasia was not being practised anywhere in the world except in Holland. The speakers also referred to various clinical scenarios and different aspects of passive euthanasia.

Scientific sessions on urology, neuro-surgery, orthopaedics, paediatric surgery, plastic surgery, radiology, gastro-medicine, dental surgery, pulmonology and pathology were also held on Saturday. -APP