CHK gets Rs500 million to make new trauma centre functional

Karachi

A day after two families protested at the emergency department of Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) alleging that the deaths of their loved ones had been caused by the absence of doctors, the Sindh health department released a sum of Rs500 million to the hospital on Thursday for making its new trauma centre functional as soon as possible.

Built at a cost of Rs6 billion and inaugurated by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, the authorities are been looking to make the facility functional in the next couple of months, after appointing specialized human resource including surgeons and paramedics.

“The health department has released a sum of Rs500 to the CHK for making the new trauma centre functional and we are hoping to make that happen by February, or at the latest by March next year,” said Prof Dr Saeed Qureshi, the medical superintendent of Civil hospital.

“We are planning to gure a trained specialist in the field of emergency medicine from abroad to run the emergency and critical care section of the trauma center. There are very few professionals in Pakistan who can handle managing  a an integrated Level-1 health facility.”

The new trauma centre is a 500-bed facility with modern and state-of-the-art operation theaters and integrated critical care units, a first of its kind in the county.

It has been built to accommodate dozens of surgeries simultaneously while treating hundreds of patients requiring emergency procedures, aid and intensive care in case of burn wounds under a single roof.

“Firstly w need to hire experts in emergency medicine, physicians trained in dealing with trauma cases and vascular surgeons for making at least some sections of the centre functional.

The ‘emergency operation theaters’ and ‘critical care’ sections of the trauma centre will become functional by the end of February or the first week of March,” said Prof Dr Saeed Qureshi. “The entire staff for the trauma centre will be hired on contract basis to provide quality healthcare to the people.”

He lamented the scarcity of trained physicians and surgeons to serve at a completely integrated Level-I facility, and said posts and positions will be advertised and an interview committee headed by Sindh health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, and comprising experts including himself, would interview the candidates to select the most competent health professionals to serve at the trauma centre.

Answering a question, he said Rs500 million released by the health department will be made available through the office of the Accountant General, adding that the hospital had requested funds from the provincial government for payment of utility bills, hiring of the staff and other pre-requisites.

“At the moment, we are testing the oxygen lines and other supply lines at the building while the contractor is still giving final touches to a few facilities we want to make operational as soon as possible,” said Dr Qureshi. “As soon as that is done, we will conduct infection control.”

Meanwhile, in additional to making the operation theatres and critical care centres of the huge trauma centre functional, the Civil hospital administration is also planning to make its 70-bed ophthalmology section of operational by the beginning of March 2016. Dr Qureshi said the ophthalmology ward will function at the ninth level of the trauma center with five operation theaters.

The structure of the trauma center is earthquake-resistant and also has a helipad.

“It’s a 15-storey building, plus ground floor and basement, where three-and-a-half floors have been reserved for parking of around 500 cars. Half of the fifth floor has been reserved for sterilization of the surgical equipment,” said Dr Qureshi. “Two complete levels of the trauma center would house an accident, emergency and trauma care with 90 beds.

Except for re-transplantation facility, which requires for re-joining severed limbs, we would have all kinds and types of emergency care at the trauma center as at this time we don’t have any surgeon specialized in re-transplantation surgery in the entire country at the moment.”