(Publish from Houston Texas USA)
(By Muhammad Mansoor Mumtaz, Lahore)
The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has demanded the immediate launch of emergency endoscopy services in all public sector hospitals across the province. President PMA Lahore, Professor Shahid Malik, stated that emergency endoscopy is critically essential for patients presenting with hematemesis (vomiting of blood) and bleeding through the lower gastrointestinal tract, and that timely endoscopic intervention can save precious human lives.
Prof Shahid Malik said that in government hospitals, either endoscopy machines are not available or emergency endoscopy is not performed when urgently required, making it extremely difficult to save patients and significantly increasing the risk of loss of valuable human lives.
He further emphasized that the government should not only initiate emergency endoscopy services but also ensure the immediate availability of banding, cautery, and other therapeutic endoscopic facilities in public hospitals, so that active bleeding in patients can be controlled on the spot through endoscopic intervention.
According to the Pakistan Medical Association Lahore, if facilities for vessel ligation, band application, or cauterization to stop bleeding promptly are available, many patients can be saved from undergoing major surgical procedures, and the mortality rate can be significantly reduced.
The Pakistan Medical Association Lahore has also urged the Government of Punjab to announce a special pay package and per-case incentives for doctors providing emergency endoscopy services, in order to ensure the effective and sustained provision of this sensitive and life-saving service.
