They said that the modern healthcare facility, which had been providing free and comprehensive services in Urology, Nephrology, Transplantation and Hepato-gastroenterology to thousands of poor people from all over the country every year, badly needed financial support from community and the government to keep the hospital alive, healthy and moving forward.
The doctors and faculty members of SIUT, including the director of the institute, Prof Syed Adibul Hasan Rizvi, were speaking at a seminar on “Free tertiary medical care in kidney and liver diseases; Can it be possible?” held at Agha Hassan Abidi Auditorium of the institute.
Talking to Dawn after the seminar, Prof Adib Rizvi said that the flow of donation and Zakat from the community was as usual, but at the same time needs of the patients and the services had increased. We have even spent the funds available in the shape of endowments on patient care, he added.
To a question he agreed that the financial burden on the institute had increased remarkably due to the process of rapid expansion, but maintained that it was inevitable.
He said despite the fact that SIUT had attained a reputation and got facilities matching to the international standards, but advancement could not be stopped as the health science was not a static one.
Prof Rizvi said that it was good to turn to the community for donations and other support, rather denying sick and needy citizens coming to the SIUT for life at any stage.
By providing excellent medical services within the country we are not saving only the time of the patients but foreign exchequers as well, he added.
Earlier, summing up the seminar, Prof Rizvi said that the SIUT was started in a very humble manner, with the notion that no one should be allowed to die because he could not afford to live. Our philosophy was that health was the basic right of citizens and no one should be denied that for want of money, he added.
Prof Rizvi said that the institute based on the principle of community-government partnership, where the public donations strengthened the government sector facilities to become functionally and financially independent.
However, he urged the government to arrange for some immovable endowments like real state and buildings, including some evacuee property, which could be better and regular sources of funding.
Other speakers said that in the last 10 years, one million patients were seen in 26 special clinics, 300,000 patients received indoor treatment in urology, nephrology and transplantation units, whereas 250,000 patients were provided emergency and medical care at the SIUT.
Over 1,500 live related renal transplants have been performed to date. The dialysis unit has 100 machines working around the clock. So far, 530,000 sessions of dialysis have been performed, while in the 10 operation theatres, 200,000 surgeries have been carried out and for stone disease patients. There are three modern lithotripsy machines and 31,000 patients have received treatment on them.
The SIUT created history by performing the first successful paediatric liver transplantation in collaboration with the King’s College of UK, it has a modern laboratory where nine million tests including tissue typing, PCR, DNA typing and electron microscopy have been performed so far, they added.
The SIUT’s radiology department has all the modern facilities, including the latest CT and MRI machines. Some 300,000 patients have benefited from these services.
Dr Anwar Naqvi said that the SIUT had more than 400 active beds and a staff of over 900, serving patients suffering from kidney and related diseases belonging to all parts of country.
He mentioned that all services were provided free of cost and without any discrimination, while the free medicines given to students included life-long immunosuppressive therapy for transplanted cases.
Dr Naqvi said that during the last five years, number of patients at the SIUT had doubled, while the funding position was inadequate as the institute at present faced a deficit of Rs100 to 150 million per year. With the costs mounting and the number of patients increasing, we need Rs500 to 600 million to dispense our treatment procedures free, he pointed out.
Regarding incoming of amount to the SIUT, he said that 66 per cent of the expenditures were met through public sector, including philanthropists and Zakat, while the remaining amount came from the Sindh government as grant-in-aid.
On this occasion Dr Naqvi also referred to the bill regarding Brain Death Law which, according to him, was still lying in the Senate, and said that it should be approved at the earliest so that the poor people could be benefited.
Dr Altaf Hashmi, Dr Ejaz Ahmed, Dr Naqi Zafar, Dr Manzoor Hassan, Dr Rashid Mirza and Dr Farhat Moazzam also spoke.