CPSP introduces fellowship programme in HPB, liver transplant surgery

Islamabad : College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan has introduced a fellowship programme in hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) and liver transplant surgery that would be a three-year training programme after the Fellowship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (FCPS) in general surgery.

The HPB surgery consists of general surgical procedures to treat benign and malignant diseases of the liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts. The HPB surgical treatment involves the most complex and challenging surgical procedures requiring a high degree of expertise and skill. The letter issued by the CPSP states that the specialty is being introduced with effect from July 2022.

Talking to ‘The News’, President CPSP Professor Dr. Muhammad Shoaib Shafi said the specialty being introduced for the first time in Pakistan would be started in at least five major medical institutions in the country including three in Karachi.

The specialty is being introduced in Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jeelani Institute of Medical Sciences in Gambat, Khairpur in Sind, and Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) in Lahore along with Shifa International Hospital in the federal capital, he said.

He added the students having trained under the new specialty would be sent abroad to the UK, China, Turkey, and Singapore. After the introduction of the 76th specialty, the CPSP has become one of the biggest degree awarding institutes in medical and surgical training in the world, he said.

It is important that CPSP which is the highest degree awarding institution in Pakistan in post-graduate medical education in as many as 76 disciplines was established some 60 years back under the act of parliament. The CPSP is an autonomous body that covers nearly 95 per cent of the total specialists in the medical profession in Pakistan.