KARACHI, March 2: Speakers at a medical congress stressed the need to augment the relationship between local and foreign medical experts and researchers in order to address the newer health concerns befittingly.
Health experts and senior health educators were addressing the 23rd Annual Congress of the Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology and Gastrointestine Endoscopy at a hotel late Thursday night.
The president of College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, Professor Zafarullah Chaudhry, who was the chief guest, said stomach and intestinal disorders were the most common of all human disorders and mankind had been initially treating these through herbal aids. However, with the development of medical sciences doctors were now in a position to see through the disorders correctly and cure them accordingly, he added.
He said the CPSP, which was conscious of the importance of gastroenterology, introduced a separate specialty in postgraduate education of doctors in mid 90’s and the first fellow in this specialty was trained in 1998. By 2006, the college had given 30 fellows of the specialty and many more were being trained, he added.
Zafarullah Chaudhry said human interaction, discussions and sharing of knowledge and experiences were the best and surest means of enhancing individuals’ insight and it was equally applicable in the case of medical scientists and professionals.
About overall status of postgraduate medical education and training, he said he was fully aware of the pressing needs in the field of postgraduate medical education, but in a developing country like ours meagre financial resources were the major constraints in acquisition of new technologies and allied equipment. “Imparting training without adequate equipment and resources with the public sector hospitals and institutions hinders quality training,” he added.
Admitting that healthcare providers and institutions in private sector were in a better position in terms of acquisition of equipments and technologies, he mentioned that an active association of the private sector institutions with postgraduate medical education was the need of the hour.
With the fast expanding horizons in medicine and healthcare, he said, newer concerns would arise and needed to be addressed appropriately. The congress would go a long way in achieving its objectives of further developing the science of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy to our present and future fellows, he concluded.
Prof Anthony Morris, President, British Society of Gastroenterology, said the society was ready to extend all supports to their Pakistani counterparts in developing skill and training centres of high quality in order to benefit the young medical graduates whose opportunities of training abroad had reduced somehow in recent years.
Professor Jan Mohammed Memon, President of Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology, said medical graduates deserved better training and educational opportunities. He said among others the CPSP could also play important role in this connection. He urged the CPSP to improve its gastro-intestine centres working and ensure establishment of more such centres close to medical varsities across the country.
Professor Muhammed Saeed Quraishy and Dr Saad Khalid Niaz also spoke at the inaugural session, which was followed by some musical extravaganza and dances performed by Nighat Chaudhry.
On Friday, at a scientific session Dr Javed Iqbal Farooqi of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar said hepatitis and liver cirrhosis was common in Pakistan. One of the dreadful complications of this disease was bleeding from stomach; he added and informed the participants that the society had prepared guidelines for doctors to manage these patients successfully.
A professor of medicine from Manila, Jose D’Sollano, spoke on the treatment challenges of chronic Hepatitis-B.
During a session on obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, Dr Waqar Ahmad from the UK discussed the successful approaches to save lives. Dr Muzaffar Latif Gill from Islamabad also spoke.