The first public sector bone-marrow transplantation centre has been established in Children Hospital Lahore at a cost of Rs 260 million.
It was stated by Punjab Minister for Specialised Healthcare & Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique after chairing a meeting to review the arrangements for operationalising the centre here on Saturday.
Installation of medical equipment is under way and the centre would start functioning within two months. Doctors have selected first five patients for bone-marrow operations.
Prof Ahsan Rathore informed the meeting that the centre consisted of 60 beds where medical treatment and surgical facilities would be provided to the patients suffering from cancer, heamatology and bone-marrow disorders.
Dean Children Hospital Prof Masood Sadiq said that the Punjab Human Organs Transplantation Authority (PHOTA) has been asked to issue institutional permission to start bone-marrow operations.
Kh Salman Rafique contacted DRAP Chief Executive Dr Aslam Afghani by telephone and asked for issuance of a permission for import of required medicines for such operations.
He assured that as soon as the Children Hospital would send a written request, DRAP would immediately issue the permission.
Kh Salman said that setting up bone-marrow transplantation centre is another milestone of Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s plans to serve masses.
He said that initially 30 bone-marrow transplantation operations would be carried out annually. He said that the facility would be provided to the poor and deserving patients free-of-cost.
In private sector, one bone-marrow operation costs Rs 3 million, he added.
