KP govt to set up Geriatric & Dementia Ward at KTH

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to establish Geriatric and Dementia Ward at the Khyber Teaching Hospital to provide physical and psychiatric treatment to the elderly people on the pattern of fountain houses in the developed world.
Briefing PTI MNA Prof Yasmin Rashid, KTH’s acting Medical Director Prof Nadeem Khawar, who visited the hospital on Thursday, said the facility would be made functional in an abandoned building made originally for patients’ relatives a decade ago.
He informed that the 16-bed ward would be established after renovation of the building while plan for recruitment of staff etc was being hammered out in collaboration with the Social Welfare Department.
He also gave a presentation regarding computerisation of patient data, improvement of diagnostic services and establishment of hospital pharmacy to improve patients’ care in line with the KP Medical Teaching Institutions Reform Act, 2015.
Prof Nadeem said the Geriatric and Dementia Ward, first of its kind in the country, would benefit people suffering from memory loss and physical problems.
Prof Syed Muhammad Sultan, head of psychiatry ward, said the move was aimed at helping the aged people, who often required assistance for the rehabilitation. The people suffer from many problems, especially Alzheimer’s disease, and couldn’t remember names of their close relatives, he said.
According to him, people couldn’t perform prayers in old age and become burden on families due to multiple medical and psychiatric disorders, for which they required medical as well as social assistance.
Due to lack of support at the community level, the oldest lot also experience great deal of personality deterioration at being abandoned, for which they required hospitalisation to detect their problems and treat them accordingly, he said.
Dr Sultan said the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan had approved a sub-specialty in psychiatry for trainee medical officers in old psychiatric disorders upon the request of the Pakistan Psychiatric Society in view of suffering of growing number of aged people. They will also be given psychological services for their emotional problems, he said.
He added that at a later stage, there was a plan to set up memory clinic at the District Headquarters Hospitals, he said. Under the plan, outdoor and indoor services would be provided to people free of cost, he added.
Senior physician Prof Dr Mohammad Humayun, head department of medicine, spoke about the old age-specific diseases and their management and said that they required physiotherapists and both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions to improve their health conditions.
This project would be forwarded to the Board of Governors KTH for upcoming meeting.
Flanked by PTI’s Punjab information secretary Andaleeb Abbas, Prof Yasmin Rashid said that Imran Khan would inaugurate the computerisation and networking database system, newly-established Quality Assurance Department at the hospital and said her party was taking steps to provide better healthcare facilities to the masses.
Dr Yasmin, a gynecologist, asked the health workers to serve the patients to the best of their abilities and spread awareness about prevention of diseases among the people.