Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) is the only one public sector hospital in the country where patients from entire Pakistan including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad and Balochistan besides Karachi and interior of Sindh are being referred for these highly specialized surgical procedures.
Accompanied by eminent surgeon Prof Naseem Baloch, Dean JPMC Prof Iqbal Afridi, Prof Shamim Qureshi, Dr Urooj Lal Rehman and other experts, Dr Seemin Jamali said in order to keep their surgeons abreast with latest techniques in thyroid gland surgeries, JPMC was holding 6th Annual Surgical Week for Endocrine Diseases from February 25-28, 2019 at the hospital where two international surgeons from United Kingdom and United States of America (USA) would be training hundreds of Pakistani surgeons.
"Prof Saba Balas Ubramanian from UK and Prof Kepal Patel from United States are two master trainers who have been invited by us at the 6th annual surgical week for endocrine diseases to train our doctors and surgeons so that they could performed these complicated surgeries as per international standards," Dr Jamali said and added that this event would not only benefit patients of Karachi but of entire Pakistan.
She said for the last six years, they were holding the surgical week training program for endocrine diseases where experts from Korea, United States, various European countries and other parts of the world were training Pakistani surgeons on complicated surgeries and now the JPMC was the only public sector facility where hundreds of such complicated surgeries were being performed annually.
"We may have some shortcomings like other public sector institutions but we are serving thousands of patients from entire Pakistan who have no other place to go for treatment of their diseases except to travel to Karachi and seek medical assistance at JPMC," she observed. Eminent surgeon and secretary of the surgical week Prof Naseem Baloch said thyroid gland diseases, especially thyroid cancer was on the rise in the country and added that apart from nuclear medicine, thyroid gland surgery was the only option for the cancer patients.
"We were receiving such a large number of patients with thyroid gland ailments and thyroid cancer that we were compelled to establish a separate surgical unit for these surgeries. Every day, we are seeing 40-50 patients with thyroid gland related diseases at our OPDs," Prof Baloch informed.
He said that keeping in view the growing number of patients requiring this highly specialized surgery, they started holding surgical week training program on annual basis where experts from developed countries were being invited to train local surgeons, not only from JPMC but also from other health institutions of the country.
""Every year, over 400 surgeons from entire Pakistan come to attend this prestigious training program where international experts perform live surgeries, give state of the art lectures and discuss case studies so that we could all learn and perform complicated surgeries locally as per international standards," he informed.
He deplored that in case of thyroid gland diseases, patients visit specialists and surgeons after visiting quacks, Hakeems and unqualified practitioners, due to which their disease progress to an extent that it becomes an immensely complicated case for experts. "I would advise people to approach specialists as early as possible so that they could be diagnosed and treated before their disease becoming untreatable," Prof Baloch added.
Dean JPMC Prof Iqbal Afridi said thyroid gland diseases often lead to psychiatric illnesses and urged people not to ignore minor symptoms including swelling in the neck or thyroid gland, problems in swallowing, fatigue, weight loss and anxiety. Other experts including Prof Shamim Qureshi, Dr Urooj Lal Rehman and others also spoke on the occasion and highlighted symptoms related endocrine disease.