GUJRAT: The Gujrat Kidney Centre will be transformed into a kidney transplant facility in future as the lithotripsy machine meant for crushing a kidney stone formally became functional at the centre on Tuesday.

Chaudhry Umer Saeed, chairman of the Servis Group of Industries, and Deputy Commissioner Dr Khurram Shahzad who is also kidney centre’s board of governors chairman, jointly inaugurated the machine recently installed at the health facility established as a public-private partnership project a few years ago.

MPA Saleem Sarwar Jaura, Pakistan Union Norway Chairman Chaudhry Qamar Iqbal, Kidney Centre President Mian Muhammad Ijaz, its administrator Dr Tahir Abbas Gondal and Jamaat-i-Islami Punjab emir Dr Tariq Saleem also spoke on the occasion and commended the services of the local philanthropists as well as the overseas Pakistanis for providing financial resources for the establishment and upgradation of the centre.

The lithotripsy machine was imported from Turkey with the donation of around Rs20 million provided by the family of late Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed.

A team of technical experts from Turkey had installed the machine in November the last besides providing training to technicians of the centre to conduct the operation of kidney stone crushing.

Speaking to the participants, the DC vowed to upgrade the centre to a kidney transplant facility in the near future for which, he said, the kidney transplant experts had been approached for consultation on the matter.

Mian Ijaz told Dawn that initially efforts were being made to get the Gujrat Kidney Centre attached with a kidney transplant facility in Lahore, or Rawalpindi/Islamabad and then gradually the centre would itself be upgraded to that level with the support of technical experts and philanthropists to facilitate the poor masses.

Currently, he said, some 30 dialysis machines were operative at the centre which might be enhanced up to 34 in near future. He said some 75 dialysis were being done free of cost at the centre daily.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2019