Acute shortage of well-organised critical care units and trained manpower - Health Minister

Read in Urdu

"There are acute shortages of well-organised critical care units even in major cities of the country, and as most units lack human resources and equipment, it is imperative to develop this specialty in Pakistan, so that we can provide better care to our critically ill patients." This was stated by Mr Muhammad Nasir Khan, Federal Minister for Health, who was the chief guest at the inaugural session of Aga Khan University's (AKU) 2nd International Critical Care Symposium - Critical Care in Developing Countries - Challenges and Opportunities, held on April 13, 2007 at AKU. The Health Minister said that symposia of this nature provided a platform for like-minded professionals from diverse training backgrounds and nationalities to share and learn from each others' experiences.

In the welcome address, Dr M Qamarul Hoda, Chairman of the Organising Committee and Professor of Anaesthesia at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), said that in response to the need identified at the 1st Critical Care Symposium in 2005, now two pre-symposium courses have been added on 'Adult Cardiac Life Support' and 'AKU Trauma, these are in addition to post-symposium workshops on different ICU related issues. In 2001, for the first time in Pakistan, a trauma training course was started by the departments of Anaesthesia, Surgery and the section of emergency medicine. To date, more than 200 doctors have been trained in the management of major trauma.

Professor Fauzia Anis Khan, Chairperson, Department of Anaesthesia at AKUH, said that though critical care has been recognised as a subspecialty in Pakistan and training programmes instituted, research at national level in this area is still non-existent. There is no national database, no information on pattern of admission and no knowledge of requirement of ICU beds. Hence there is overwhelming need to work out effective organisational and management strategies that are efficient and cost-effective.

In addition to the inaugural session there are poster presentations as well as other scientific sessions and plenary lectures, and on April 15 post-symposium workshops will be held on topics such as Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT), Weaning from Mechanical Ventilation, Non-invasive Ventilation (NIV), etc.

The inaugural session was also addressed by Mr Firoz Rasul, President of AKU; Dr Muhammad Khurshid, Dean AKU Medical College; Dr Wasim Jafri, Chairman Department of Medicine and Dr Khurshid Khowaja, Director Nursing Services.

Guest included international faculty from the UK, Sweden, India, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Iran and Sri Lanka.

As part of its social responsibility and commitment to the advancement of health research and education, Aga Khan University (AKU) regularly holds seminars, symposia and conferences to raise the awareness on health related issues which are of national and international importance.

Read in Urdu