LAHORE, Feb 14: The management of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, has offered to facilitate local hospitals in setting up a liver transplant centre, besides training of local doctors in conducting liver transplants.
The offer was made by the hospital’s board of management chairman Dr S K Sama while talking to reporters after a meeting with Fatima Jinnah Medical College/Ganga Ram Hospital’s board of management and faculty members on the college campus on Tuesday. Dr Sama was accompanied by Dr Kaveeta and Dr Rishi.
He said the SGRH’s liver transplant surgeons were ready to share their expertise in setting up a liver transplant centre in Lahore. The Indian doctors could also perform a few transplants for the training of local surgeons, he added.
He said the SGRH surgeons were conducting liver transplants with 90 per cent success rate. The hospital had also conducted liver transplantations upon four Pakistani children with cent per cent success rate. He said the transplantations were being conducted for Indian Rs1.6 million each.
Earlier, answering a question during the meeting, Dr Sama said that he was ready to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the FJMC/GRH for research, teaching or training purposes.
However, FJMC/GRH board of management chairman former chief justice Mian Mehboob Ahmad said no MoU could be signed hurriedly. He said the heads of both institutions would negotiate and plan collaborations in research and training of students and junior faculty in a proper manner.
Dr Sama had also invited the FJMC/GRH academic council and faculty members to give their suggestions that how both institutions could collaborate and work together.
Responding to suggestions, Dr Sama said the SGRH could offer common teaching and training programmes as well as impart training to junior faculty members in performing surgical procedures through latest techniques in different specialities. He said both institutions could also share their research activities for the benefit of patients. He said the hospital had a research committee that facilitate consultants in conducting research.
He also suggested that the Pakistani medical faculty should also tap the drug trial projects being out sourced from the USA.
Dr Sama also gave a multi-media presentation about the SGRH. He said the hospital was established in 1954 and had become a leading multi-speciality facility. He said the hospital was not taking any financial assistance from the government or other agencies. He said the hospital had 35 departments, 23 operation theatres, 718 beds and 266 consultants.
He also said that the hospital’s consultants were working on 139 research projects and 70 drug trials.
FJMC/GRH BoM chairman Mian Mehboob Ahmad said there was a need to focus on prevention of diseases because curative option was too expensive. He said both Lahore and Delhi institutions had a great scope for collaboration in research projects.