KARACHI, Dec 7: In view of the growing number of cases of injuries resulting from traffic accidents and man-made or natural disasters in the country, experts in orthopaedics on Friday urged the government to improve the trauma-related care provided by hospitals at all level.

Speaking at a press briefing about a conference — 26th International Pak Orthocon — being organised in Karachi by the orthopaedic surgery department of the Chandka Medical College, Larkana, the experts noted that trauma centres run by the government at district level missed trained manpower and as such these facilities remained either underutilised or non-functional.

Prof Asadullah Mehar, chairman of the organising committee, said that about a dozen foreign speakers from the US, Germany, Egypt, Canada, the UK, Malaysia and the UAE were participating in different sessions of the three-day conference, which was a record in the history of the Orthocon.

The 2012 conference featuring “evaluation and innovation in orthopaedics”, which was inaugurated by chairman of the federal public service commission retired Justice Rana Bhagwandas would continue till December 9, he added.

He said that in addition to 10 pre-conference workshops held in Karachi and Lahore, there were 10 state-of-the-art lectures, 25 invited lectures, 90 free papers and 10 e-posters on schedule.

Saying that Orthocon activities would go a long way in educating junior doctors to develop and update skills and art of the orthopaedic surgery, Prof Mahar said that the purpose of the conference was to advance the standards of patient care in the country.

He further said that hands-on training for master trainers on correction of the club foot deformity — a congenital deformity in child — was also a part of the conference.

He said that a meeting of the experts doing such corrections without surgery with the provincial health secretary was also due and there was a likelihood that a public-private venture pertaining to club foot would be introduced for the rural patients as well.

Pakistan Orthopaedic Association secretary Dr Manzoor A. Memon, Orthocon organising committee secretary Dr Zamir Ahmed Soomro, Prof Ali Muhammad Ansari and President of the POA Prof Anisuddin Bhatti were also present during the press conference.

Replying to a question, Dr Soomro said that increasing number of injuries and disabilities due to traffic accidents, blasts and other events of violence had overburdened orthopaedic facilities and as such there was a need of getting more doctors and paramedical staffs trained in this field to make trauma centres more capable of handling the situation.

He as well as Dr Memon, identified a couple of trauma centres in the province and pointed out that one of those had become redundant because of shortage of manpower.

The government had now started establishing trauma centres at district level, but in addition to concrete buildings it should also think about allied equipment and manpower to increase capacity of these facilities in dealing with at least severe trauma patients in districts, he said.

Speaking to Dawn, Prof Dr Ashraf Nizami from Lahore said that national disaster management was not up to the mark in the country because it lacked the expertise in orthopaedics needed for trauma cases. “We also need to include the aspects of disaster management in medical science education,” the senior office holder of the POA, Punjab, said.