Videoconferenced e-learning facilities begin at PIMS today

[Naveed Yaseen]

Shahina Maqbool
French Ambassador Daniel Jouanneau will be the guest of honour today (Wednesday) at the inauguration of Videoconferencing (e-learning) facilities for Master’s in Critical Care Medicine initiated by the Quaid-i-Azam Post-Graduate Medical College at the

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). Secretary Health Khushnood Lashari will be the chief guest on the occasion.

It is now 10 years since PIMS and Saint Antoine Hospital in Paris have been collaborating through a programme funded by the French government. In December 2000, a medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) had been established at PIMS with French technical assistance.

The facility has provided ICU care to more than 3,500 patients since then. Patients suffering from severe infections, neurological diseases, pregnancy-related emergencies, acute respiratory failure, multiple trauma, or poisoning are managed in this unit.

Doctors and nurses from PIMS have been sent to the Medical ICU of Saint Antoine Hospital for specialized training and a French consultant in critical care medicine has been deputed to PIMS for the last three years.

Critical care is the delivery of care to acutely ill patients requiring organ support like mechanical ventilation, dialysis or infusion of drugs to maintain the blood pressure. It requires the availability of trained, dedicated doctors and nurses providing specialized care round the clock. Critical care medicine has been recently recognized as a specialty.

Quaid-i-Azam University has approved the format and the curriculum of a Master’s in Critical Care Medicine, the first teaching programme in this discipline in Pakistan oriented towards service delivery and the provision of primary care to the critically ill.

Intensive Care Units in Pakistan are suffering from inadequate human resources and lack of standardization of services. There is no career structure or any financial incentives for doctors working in ICUs despite stressful duties and the requirement of a high level of competency. PIMS has submitted a PC-1 to the Ministry of Health in that respect to create positions of consultants in critical care medicine and to allocate specific allowances to health workers appointed in ICUs.

Videoconferencing equipment has been funded through a dedicated grant from the French government. Teaching sessions are being organized by a joint Pak-French faculty. French professors will deliver lectures through videoconferencing.

The inaugural ceremony will be attended through videoconferencing from Paris by Professor Offenstadt of Saint Antoine Hospital and Professor Bertrand Guidet, president of the French Society of Critical Care Medicine (SRLF).

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