Experts for using modern medicine and surgery approaches

As many as 50-60 per cent of terminally-ill patients of cancer or other deadly diseases experience ‘near death awareness (NDA), during which they claim to communicate with persons who are not alive, tell their loved ones of they are going on a long journey and even foresee time of their deaths.

Experts of palliative medicine said this while speaking during a scientific session at an international health conference on Saturday.

They said terminally-ill patients not only required continuous family support but also the attention of their doctors, paramedics and nurses who remained involved in their earlier treatment. They called for focuses on preventing and relieving the suffering of such patients by providing them with a combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions to achieve adequate symptom control.

“Often the families of terminally-ill patients complain that doctors and paramedics who were involved in the treatment of their patients abandoned them at the last time. It is often seen that patients who were provided palliative care survived and remained alive for a much longer time. There is need to extend the palliative care and support to terminally ill patients irrespective of their overall prognosis,” said eminent paediatric oncologist and expert Prof Shamvil Ashraf while speaking on the issue of palliative care at the conference.

The 4th Biennial Conference (ICON 18) on the theme ‘Redefining Healthcare’ is being organised by the Indus Health Network at a local hotel, and it is being attended by health experts, professors and medical specialists from around the world, including the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

The moot was inaugurated by Sindh Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro and Federal Health Secretary Kamran Baloch late on Friday night, where they felicitated the Indus Health Network on bringing together experts from different fields of medicine and surgery to reshape the healthcare sector in Pakistan.

They hoped that this biennial event would help the federal and provincial authorities in providing better healthcare facilities to the masses.

Earlier, speaking at the inaugural session, Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro claimed that the provincial government was focusing on the provision of healthcare facilities to the masses at their doorsteps. In this regard, he said, new health facilities were being established in various cities and towns by the health department, and under public-private partnership, health facilities were being made functional and improved.

Federal Health Secretary Kamran Baloch felicitated the Indus Health Network on organising such a mega event in the area of healthcare and vowed that the federal government would extend every type of support to it and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) striving to eliminate disease and misery from the country.

An eminent cardiologist and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Indus Health Network, Prof Abdul Bari Khan, said the theme of the conference ‘redefining health’ reflected the path Indus had taken to demonstrate that free-of-cost healthcare, without compromising on integrity or quality, was possible in Pakistan.

“At Indus, we are not only driven by service delivery but also investing in promoting academic and scientific discourse in Pakistan. This year’s ICON will not only focus on showcasing clinical specialties but will also feature public and community health aspects of care,” he maintained.

The chairman of the scientific committee of the conference, Prof Sohail Akhtar, said that there would be discussions on the ethical, social and administrative sides of the medicines at the conference. He added that key discussions would include community engagement, person-centered care, infections, non-communicable diseases, palliative care, innovations and safety in surgery and trauma care, communication skills, and mother and child health.

Younous Bengali, chairman of the Board of Governors of the conference, said in his remarks that ICON was an inspirational forum for medical and nursing experts, hospital executives, policymakers, insurers, consumer advocates and industry analysts to exchange ideas, share best practices and set new standards for providing quality medical care to people.

Other experts who spoke included Prof Muhammad Junaid Patel, conference chair; Prof Saeeda Haider, co-chair of the ICON 18; Dr Syed Zafar Zaidi, dean of the Indus University of Health Sciences; Dr Claire Campbell; Dr Zakiuddin Ahmed, president of the Healthcare Quality and Safety Association of Pakistan; Dr Salman A Keshavjee; and Dr Bernadette Abela Ridder, WHO Team Leader Switzerland.