German diplomat impressed by services at Burns & Trauma Centre

PESHAWAR: A German embassy official on Thursday praised the Pakistani doctors for serving the burn victims at the 120-bed Burns and Trauma Centre.

The 1st secretary at the political section of the German embassy in Islamabad, Andreas Wutz, visited the centre in Hayatabad. Director of the centre, Prof Dr Mohammad Tahir Khan, briefed the guest about services being offered to patients. “I want to express my gratitude for your hard work and services to the burn patients. No doubt, you are serving patients; you are serving your community but at the same time you are serving humanity,” said Andreas Wutz. After visiting different sections of the centre, the diplomat said he was impressed by the standard services being provided to the burn patients and that too free of cost.

He lauded Dr Tahir Khan for his efforts for establishing the centre in the province. “This is commendable that Prof Tahir has been struggling for the past 20 years to have a facility for the burn patients,” he said at a function held at the centre. Health Minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, Secretary Health Yahya Akhunzada and Secretary Finance Shakeel Qadir were scheduled to attend the function but they did not turn up.

Earlier, Dr Tahir Khan spoke about his efforts that finally got Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the first and state-of-the-art 120-bed Burns and Trauma Centre. He said KP and its adjoining tribal areas suffered heavy losses in bomb blasts and suicide attacks but there was no proper place in the province to treat the burn victims. People had to take their patients to Punjab where a few centres were available but the treatment cost was beyond the reach of the majority of people, he explained.

Those who could afford would take the patients to the Pakistan Army-run Burns Hospital in Kharian. “In KP, there was one specialised plastic surgery department at the Hayatabad Medical Complex, but it remained overburdened and patients were made to wait for over two years for the surgical procedures,” Dr Tahir said.

When the federal government stopped providing fund for the project and the KP government did not have enough resources for the centre, Dr Tahir and some other government officials contacted the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for assistance in addressing health problems of the burn victims in KP. The USAID in 2017 offered $15 million for procurement of equipment and the remaining civil work. The KP government then released Rs300 million for the remaining work. Besides this, the KP government later sanctioned 347 positions for the centre. Dr Tahir mentioned the people who took personal interest and helped arrange funds for the important project, including Mohammad Azam Khan, Abid Majeed and Shakeel Qadir.