PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan inaugurated the province’s first burns and trauma centre here on Tuesday.

Construction of the centre has witnessed a delay of several years. However, taking a suo motu notice of the lack of facilities for burn patients the Peshawar High Court had directed the Pervez Khattak-led government to expedite its construction in 2017. The court had appointed the then secretary health Mohammad Abid Majeed as the focal person for the project, who also played a crucial role in its completion.

The centre started operations earlier last year and has been receiving patients.

Talking to mediapersons on this occasion, the chief minister said that credit for its completion went to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government that wanted to provide all basic facilities of life to the people on their doorsteps.

Rejects reports about differences with top party leadership

He said that development work on the first burns centre in Peshawar was possible by the sole efforts of the PTI-led government. He refuted reports of having differences with the top leadership and maintained that there was no truth in such reports.

KP Health Minister Hisham Inamullah said that the government had brought revolutionary changes in the health sector where people were being provided proper treatment facilities in all public sector hospitals of the province.

He said that the government had welcomed positive criticism for the sake of improvement. He said that so far around 2,000 patients received treatment for burns and availed of post-operative recuperation facilities in the centre.

The minister said that establishment of the first 120-bed centre was a landmark achievement of the government under which all facilities and medicines would be given to the patients suffering from burn injuries He said that the centre had been equipped with the telemedicine and video conferencing facilities.

“The centre has also been connected with the burn centers of different developed countries and our doctors will benefit from the research and new treatment techniques,” he said.

Meanwhile, a statement of the US Consulate here said that burn victims in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could now receive treatment in Peshawar thanks to the newly-opened burns and trauma centre. It said that while burn victims previously had to travel long distances to other parts of Pakistan for treatment, this new centre ensured they would receive high quality services closer to home.

“As partners with the Government of Pakistan for this project, the US government, through a grant from the USAID, provided $15 million to buy equipment and complete the centre,” it said.

The centre will also provide trauma treatment and plastic surgery services, and its 120 beds can accommodate 10,000 patients annually. The facility will serve all parts of KP, including the newly-merged districts and other areas bordering Afghanistan.

In a message at the opening ceremony in Peshawar, US Consul General in Peshawar, Jonathan Shrier, said: “Throughout Pakistan, the hospitals, schools, universities, dams, roads and power stations we’ve built are not as important as the lives of those who benefit from them. In each case, our focus has been on the well-being of the people.”

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2019