KARACHI, Feb 1: A well-equipped pain management clinic was inaugurated on the premises of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, on Saturday afternoon. The clinic is the country’s second such facility in the public sector.

The clinic will be working under the hospital’s department of anaesthesiology and surgical ICU. Its OPD will be run and managed by Dr Safia Zafar and Dr Jameel Akhtar, who have been trained specially for the purpose.

The senior members of the clinic — Prof Tipu Sultan, Dr Amin Suleman, Dr Saeeda Haider, Dr Sadqa Aftab and Dr Zahid Selod — will be either supervising their work or will be there in an advisory capacity.

Under the proposed scheme of things, the clinic will have an outpatient department and also a day-care clinic. Any patient who walks into the clinic will be provided free care.

The Civil Hospital has promised to supply the equipment needed in future and also the medicine. All kinds of pain will be managed at the facility.

The clinic doesn’t have the resources to admit patients. However, any patient admitted to any of the hospital’s other wards would be provided help if he contacts the clinic.

Speeches made at the inauguration ceremony welcomed the opening of the badly-needed facility. The chief guest, Brig (retd) M. Salim, said pain management was an important area which had so far remained neglected.

Speaking on the occasion, the hospital’s medical superintendent, Prof Noshad Shaikh, assured the staff of the new clinic that resources needed to run the clinic smoothly would be provided by the management at all times.

Prof Tipu Sultan welcomed the guests and also presented the vote of thanks.

Talking to Dawn after the ceremony, Prof Sultan said it was important that a pain management facility had anaesthesiologists, physiotherapists and oncologists on board. “Otherwise the success rate will be low,” he said.

The new clinic was lucky as it had these as regular members, the professor said.

The hospital’s additional medical superintendent, Dr Kalim Butt, said the clinic had the capacity to handle both acute and chronic pains.