Capital to have modern Liver Transplant Centre

[LahoreEstate]

ISLAMABAD- The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has finally approved establishment of country’s first ever modern Liver Transplant Centre in Islamabad to provide inexpensive treatment facilities to patients with severe liver diseases.
A senior official of the Authority informed that a plot measuring two acres has been marked for establishment of the Centre near the Shifa International Hospital in Sector H-8. He further informed that the Centre would be established and run on Public-Private Partnership basis due to lack of financial resources with the Authority.
The official said that CDA would engage two foreign firms for establishment and running of the Centre, adding advertisement for the pre-qualification of the firms would soon be given in newspapers. He further said that some Iran and Singapore-based charity organisations have also pledged their assistance for the purpose.
Keeping in view the mounting number of Hepatitis B and C patients in the country, and the heavy cost of liver transplant in foreign countries, former chairman CDA Kamran Lashari had felt serious need of establishment of a state-of-the-art liver transplant centre in Islamabad to provide inexpensive treatment facilities to the poor patients with serious liver damages. He had also constituted a committee headed by CDA’s Senior Director Health Dr Saeed Ahmad to conduct feasibility study for establishment of the Center.
However, due to lack of interest on the part of Lashari’s successors and the severe financial crunch at the Authority, the project took two years to get nod of the CDA sitting bosses.
“According to a recent survey conducted by World Health Organisation (WHO), there existed an estimated number of 16 million Hepatitis B and C patients in Pakistan, of which 4 million patients needed immediate liver transplant,” CDA official said.
“Furthermore, there were approximately 1 lac liver patients in Islamabad alone, of which 20,000 patients were in serious need of liver transplant,” he added. He regretted that due to the absence of any such facility in the country, patients were compelled to suffer heavy costs on liver transplantation in India, China or some other foreign country or die without proper treatment. He also informed that the proposed liver transplant center in Islamabad would provide the same facility at ten times lesser cost than the foreign countries.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-n...ant-Centre