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Tuesday March 19, 2024

KP gets first Burns, Trauma Centre

By Mushtaq Yusufzai
November 16, 2018

PESHAWAR: The long and tireless efforts of senior plastic surgeon Prof Tahir Khan finally yielded results as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa got its first and state-of-the-art 120-bed Burns and Trauma Centre.

Two important healthcare projects, Burn and Trauma Centre and Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC) had a similar story as construction work on both projects started several years ago but wasn’t completed due to lack of funds that the federal government was supposed to provide.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, or Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, is expected to formally inaugurate the centre in the last week of this month. It was in 2011 when work was launched on the Burns and Trauma Centre with funds to be provided by the federal government and the Workers Welfare Board (WWB).

Payment was made for some time but construction work had to be stopped in 2013 when the government and WWB stopped further funding to the project. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its adjoining tribal areas remained the worst victims of terrorism since 2001 and hundreds of people suffered losses in bomb explosions, suicide attacks and airstrikes, including drone strikes.

Majority of the people suffered burn injuries in these incidents of violence and lost their lives due to lack of a proper burns and trauma centre in the province. Those who could afford were taken to the Pakistan Army-run Burns Hospital in Kharian.

In the province, there was onespecialised plastic surgery department at the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), but it remained overburdened and patients were made to wait for more than two years for their surgical procedures.

Prof Dr Tahir Khan, head of Plastic Surgery Department at HMC and project director of Burns and Trauma Centre, and his colleagues had almost lost hope when the federal government stopped funding and the KP government was not able to arrange such a huge amount of money required for the centre.

People close to DrTahir Khan said most of his colleagues were disappointed but he never gave up hope. He approached the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the provincial government for help by informing it about the plight of burns victims in KP and Fata.

The USAID in 2017 agreed to provide $15 million for procurement of equipment and the remaining civil work. The KP government also released Rs300 million for the remaining civil works. Dr Tahir pursued the project since its inception and wanted to ensure the centre could be opened to patients in September 2018.

However, it didn’t happen as some of the civil work and installation of equipment required more time. He made it clear to the contractors that they would have to complete work on two operation theatres so that surgical procedures could be done there. It was a memorable day for him and his team when they finally started procedures in the new building.

“There is a lot of burden on us from patients and we didn’t have enough space to accommodate them. With this state-of-the-art centre ready now, we are able to provide quality services to a large number of patients,” explained Dr Tahir Khan while talking to The News.

The KP government has approved 347 positions for the centre, including director, two professors of burn and reconstructive surgery, associate professors, assistant professors, deputy medical superintendents, senior registrars, junior registrars, nursing director, anesthetists and several other technical and non-technical jobs.

According to Dr Tahir, some of the people took personal interest and helped arrange funds for the project. “A few of them like former chief secretary Mohammad Azam Khan, ex-secretary health Abid Majeed, secretary finance Shakeel Qadir, and obviously USAID, C&W and PDMA were incredible,” he remarked.

Secretary Health Abid Majeed took personal interest in the matter and raised the issue at high forums to help Dr Tahir in arranging funds for the project. He said the equipment cost Rs1.11 billion that was provided by the USAID.

In the 120-bed centre, he said they would have 50 beds reserved for burns patients and the remaining for patients requiring plastic surgery and reconstructive services. The centre will have eight-bed ICU, 12 beds each for male and female acute burn patients along with 12 beds reserved for children. Dr Tahir said they have eight operation theatres, including two each for trauma and burns (major and minor) and four for elective cases. He said they would provide services six days a week and utilise all the available resources to provide the best quality services under one roof.