KARACHI, Nov 19: A full-fledged kidney ward for children, with all relevant facilities, is expected to be fully operational by next year at the National Institute of Child Health.

NICH Director Dr. Afroze Ramzan said on Friday that the institute, attending no less than 5,000 child patients each month, has embarked upon a major expansion plan under which besides provision for MRI facilities, kidney transplantation for children reporting with renal failure is also envisaged.

Mentioning the Rs 90 million budgetary allocation for the NICH made by the federal government under the current fiscal year (2004-2005), she said a lithotripsy (stone-breaking) machine, especially meant for children, has already been procured.

To a query, she said there happen to be some 1,500 children suffering from renal diseases and registered with the NICH, adding these are besides 400 other inflicted with renal failures.

In this context, she cited poverty as the major cause of renal diseases among the local children as they are denied proper type of food. "NICH is already offering free of charge dialysis facilities to all children in need," Dr. Afroze Ramazan said, reminding that the facility for kidney transplantation would further be of great support to the latter.

She also referred to a project meant to develop state of art operation theatre at NICH, adding that there are already four OTs working at the NICH, in addition to two more which are in process.

Around 10,000 cases of surgery are annually undertaken at the city's largest hospital for children. To further ease and improve the process of adequate diagnosis, the NICH has already floated a tender for procurement of an MRI machine expected to be installed and functional in next three months time.

The NICH director also mentioned the plans being materialized to help the institute develop as an updated and modern teaching-cum-training institute for health care providers, ranging right from doctors, nurses to paramedics and technicians in the specialized field of paediatrics.

According to her, an initiative was taken some two years back with the inception of a project to renovate the institute's library. The facility was said to be currently availed by 70 to 100 doctors undergoing varied diploma as well as post-graduate level medical education programmes besides an equal number of nurses doing specialized courses every year.

It is under process of being fully computerized and while the students are currently being provided on-line access to some of the journals and publication through the support of CPSP, further measures are under way to convert the facility into a full-fledged "electronic library." -APP