LAHORE: The Punjab government has established 12 provincial stroke management centres (PSMCs) at the major teaching hospitals across the province for the timely diagnosis and treatment of ischemic stroke patients.

These facilities were not available in Punjab except one at the Services Hospital Lahore, which was unable to cater to the needs of a large number of stroke patients of the province.

Following the need to provide life-saving health facilities, the Punjab government designated four major hospitals in Lahore and eight in other main cities to treat the stroke patients.

In Lahore, the critical facility would now be provided at the Services Hospital Lahore, Mayo Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram and one dedicated center at the Punjab Institute of Neuro Sciences (PINS) Lahore while in other cities, it would be available at the Allied Hospital Faisalabad, Nishtar Hospital Multan, Allama Iqbal Memorial Teaching Hospital Sialkot, Shaikh Zayed Hospital Rahim Yar Khan, Holy Family Hospital Rawalpindi, DHQ Hospital Gujranwala, DHQ Hospital Narowal and Bahawal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur.

Unhealthy food habits among causes of stroke

The PSMCs were established at the teaching institutes having neurology units and functional CT scan facilities where the dedicated teams of doctors would be available to attend to the patients and start treatment within four hours of the onset of the ischemic stroke.

Talking to Dawn, the head of department of neurology at the Services Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS), Prof Dr Qasim Bashir, threw light on the project.

He said a stroke patient’s son donated USD 100,000 when he realised the importance of the disease and the timely treatment provided by the doctors to help establish the stroke centres in Punjab.

Meanwhile, he said, Punjab Health Secretary Ali Jan also supported and provided funds, logistic support and the facilities at 12 hospitals.

“The PSMCs strive to empower healthcare professionals and the public to recognise stroke early, minimise disability through a swift emergency response network, ensuring rapid access to free life-saving treatment while also prompting stroke research across the province.”

Dr Qasim said that under the project, the Rescue 1122 personnel had been trained to play an important role to shift the stroke patients to the designated centres where a team of the doctors would be available to start timely diagnosis and treatment.

He said the centres would provide free of cost the most demanded and costly injection tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a powerful agent that dissolves blood clots.

“It is injected by intravenous administration (IV) for emergency stroke treatment,” he said and added that a stroke could be caused by an interruption in blood flow either due to a blood clot (ischemic stroke) or a bleeding (hemorrhagic stroke) in the brain.

Prof Qasim said that all the centres had been interlinked to obtain, for the first time, a reliable data bank of stroke patients in Punjab. This data bank would help the Punjab health department authorities for the resource allocation, he said, adding that all age group people, particularly adults and young people, were at the risk of stroke due to the unhygienic food habits.

To a question, he said energy drinks were contributing a lot to creating serious health risks and suggested to the parents to take care of their kids in this respect to avoid the onset of the stroke.

Meanwhile, Punjab Minister for Health Khawaja Salman Rafique attended the opening ceremony of a PSMC at the Services Institute of Medical Sciences auditorium on Thursday.

Punjab Secretary Emergency Services Dr Rizwan Naseer, Principal Sims Professor Dr. Zohra Khanum, Executive Director Punjab Institute of Neurosciences Prof. Dr Asif Bashir, Prof Dr Jodat Saleem and other senior

medical teachers were present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2024