LARKANA: The 12-bed Thalassaemia Centre of the Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH), Larkana, still lacks essential facilities since its establishment in 2011 despite the fact that the number of registered patients is constantly rising.
On April 10, 2016, the registered number of patients was 847 but now it has reached 853 on World Thalassaemia Day on Monday with the addition of six new cases within 29 days.
CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Inayatullah Kandhro told media that a letter had been sent to Commissioner, Larkana Division, wherein it had been informed that the Thalassaemia Centre was running at Paeds Medicine Department which was facing a lot of problems, specially shortage of proper trained staff, provision of required blood to the affected Thalassaemia patients.
Dr Kandhro said that commissioner had been requested to convey the request to Fatimid Foundation to look after the CMCH Thalassaemia Centre on humanitarian grounds.
He further said Fatimid Foundation authorities had made a commitment that they would not only provide blood and medicines to the affected poor patients along with other required facilities but they had also assured to train medics at the center.
Sources said that the essential laboratory tests of Electrophoresis, Serum Feretin level, Chorionic Villous Sampling (CVS), auto analyzer for blood grouping and cross-matching, Vidas PC for Serum Feretin level and others were not available at the Centre.
A visit on the World Thalassaemia Day to the Centre showed that three affected thalassaemia kids were receiving blood transfusion on a single bed due to rush of the patients which showed that this centre badly needs the urgent attention from higher government authorities.
SNE of the centre is pending approval since long which should not only be approved but it must also be implemented on war-footing basis. Sindh Thalassaemia Act must also be implemented in letter and spirit which was passed by provincial assembly in 2013.
Duty doctors and paramedics said that on average 25 to 30 patients arrive mostly with their mothers to get treatment daily.
A senior doctor told reporters on the condition of anonymity that there are only two countries in the world which are Thalassaemia-free, one is Iran and another is Italy where HB electrophoresis is mandatory and the test report is to be presented before marriage to control this menace
He said that it is suggested to Sindh government to implement legislation in Sindh province as well to stop emergence of such huge number of cases of the disease.
