The Hakim Sanaullah Specialist Hospital (HSSH) Dialysis Centre held a symposium on 'Dialysis Awareness here today. Senior doctors from SKIMS, Soura, Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar, and other prominent doctors of the Valley, spoke about Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and the need for early diagnosis and identification of patients who require long-term treatment.
The Chief Guest Professor Tanveer P Mir, Chairman of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians (ACP), an ethnic Kashmiri, specially visited the Centre for this event. She holds the distinguished position of being a Master of the ACP since 2008, and headed the International Council of the ACP from 2012-2014, taking over the Chairmanship of the Board of Regents of the ACP this year. She talked about end-of-life care for patients who have chronic kidney disease.
Prof Ghulam Hassan Malik, formerly Head of Department of Nephrology at SKIMS and currently head of Well Care Medical Centre, Srinagar, Prof Mohammed Saleem Najar, Head of Department of Nephrology at SKIMS, Dr Mohammed Amin Simbli and other doctors talked about various topics related to dialysis.
Other notable persons from the medical fraternity who were present were Prof Kaiser Ahmed, Head of Department of Paediatrics at GMC, Srinagar, Prof Shad Salim Akhtar, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of HSSH, Dr Mohammed Ramzan Sofi, one of the senior-most physicians of Sopore, Dr Ishtyaq Ahmed Wani, and Consultant Anaesthesiologist at Sopore.
The Dialysis Centre has been operational since 2012, and has conducted thousands of dialysis sessions, with hundreds of patients, on a non-profit basis.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
Later, a ceremony to distribute awards to the people who volunteered help during the devastating floods of 2014 was held. During last year’s floods, many patients had no access to dialysis centres in Srinagar, with all dialysis centres flooded. There was also an acute shortage of drugs and dialysate fluid needed for dialysis.
Awards were given to Special Secretary to the Govt of J&K, Mir Ghulam Rasool, SP of Sopore, Abdul Qayoom and Dr Akhtar Ali and Dr Jamshed Ahmed of HSSH who, despite personal loss during the flood, refused to leave their duties and continued to attend to patients. Fresenius India, the company which supplied the dialysis medicines and a dialysis machine to help cope with the added rush of patients during the floods, was also awarded.
Mr Aly Ahmed received the award on behalf of Humanity First, the charity that airlifted the dialysis machine and dialysis medicines from Delhi especially for the rural population that had been badly affected. Also awarded were Abdul Hameed, Administrator Incharge of HSSH, Dialysis technician, Suhail Mohiuddin Waza, Operation Theatre technician, Nazir Ahmed, Receptionist Shariq Ahmed, and Ambulance Driver Tasaduq Husain. The HSSH Board extended special thanks to all those staff members who were part of the team last year, who saved countless lives by keeping the dialysis centre functional and other persons who extended helping hand during the time of the floods. (KNS)