PESHAWAR: The Institute of Kidney Diseases, Hayatabad Medical Complex, has expanded its infrastructure to carry out two renal transplants per day amid request to the government to establish human leukocyte antigen (HLA) laboratory to fast-track genetic testing and save time and money of patients.
The director of Institute of Kidney Diseases (IKD), Dr Mohammad Kamran Khan, told Dawn that the institute had already started conducting one transplant a day but owing to backlog of cases, it recruited a new team to ensure two procedures every day.
“We have been doing one case every day for the past 12 days after expansion of ward, OPD and ICU beds in addition to hiring a highly-trained transplant surgeon to go for two cases a day and do away with the waiting list,” he said. He added that all patients received free transplant services at the institute on Sehat Card Plus.
“To be able to perform two cases a day, we have dedicated operation theatres where new transplant surgeon Dr Samiur Rahman has performed 12 procedures so far,” said Dr Kamran.
IKD director urges govt to establish human leukocyte antigen laboratory
He said that 80 patients were on waiting list. “Of them, 45 are being investigated, 18 cases are ready and seven have been sent to Medical Transplantation Regulatory authority (MTRA) for approval while the rest are being processed,” he said.
He said that evaluation of patients took a month. “We have planned to end the waiting list within two months,” he said.
Dr Kamran said that establishment of HLA laboratory would make things easier. “Presently, we send donors and recipients for pre-transplant screening, which takes time. In near future, we want to start deceased donor transplants,” he said.
He said that so far, the institute had conducted only one deceased donor transplant for which the brain-dead donor was kept on ventilator for 24 hours till arrival of a team from Shifa International.
“In June last year, for the first time in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, doctors retrieved organs from 14-year-old Jawad Khan that were transplanted to five patients,” he said. The government established MTRA in 2017 to cope with illegal trade of organ transplants and pave way for legal procedures in the province.
Subsequently, Prof Asif Malik, a transplant surgeon at IKD, was made its administrator and so far more than 700 different organ transplants have been conducted. Prof Asif Malik started legal transplants. He has done about 100 cases.
Since his retirement in 2020, IKD had been hiring transplant surgeons from time to time but the momentum was slow. However, now the expansion of services has raised the hopes for two cases a day at the institute.
Dr Samiur Rahman, the head of transplant unit at IKD, said that one transplant a day had already been started and the number would be doubled from next month.
“We are going to shorten the waiting period for patient and hoped that the government will install HLA laboratory that will be a milestone as presently the services are not available in the province,” he said.
Dr Sami, a resident of Swat and graduate of Gomal Medical College Dera Ismail Khan with training in Islamabad, told Dawn that formerly, patients often faced long waiting periods, but the increased transplant activity was helping more patients to receive treatment in a timely manner.
He acknowledged the support and commitment of IKD director, whose efforts played an important role in strengthening and expanding transplant services.
Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2026
