Peshawar cardiology institute to resume elective surgeries within fortnight.

PESHAWAR -- Peshawar Institute of Cardiology, which stopped elective services after recording cases of infection five months ago, is set to resume operations within a fortnight.

'The institute went operational in December 2020. We started noticing some wound infections a couple of months ago due to which we shut down elective services temporarily,' Prof Syed Shahkar Ahmed Shah, the medical director of PIC, told Dawn.

He said that about 13 per cent of their patients, against the international standard of five per cent, recorded deep wound infection. He said that they set up a separate operation room (OR) and high dependency unit (HDU) to cope with infected patients. However, emergency surgeries were still in progress, he added.

'In February, mycobacterium other than tuberculosis (MOTT) infection, a non-TB but similar bacteria, was first diagnosed in some children and the biopsies were sent to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi to trace out the source,' said Prof Shahkar. He added that water samples were also sent to Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) and the regional TB centre and the results were negative.

The hospital suspended the services five months ago after recording infection cases

'Several experts from Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad and Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH) were called in to check and help us to assess Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD) processes and all their recommendations were implemented,' he said.

He said that the CSSD processes were reviewed and further strengthened and more senior staffers were hired to regulate sterilisation area. He added that the particle count was also found above normal during environmental checks by a team of Association of Operating Room Nurses, an American organisation, and steps were taken to reduce it.

Prof Shahkar said that the steps were helpful but did not fully eliminate the infection. He said that the nature of infection mainly changed from deep to superficial. An infection control team from AKUH visited the institute in May 2022 and brought special culture media bottles for MOTT source tracing. Using special techniques, the team found out MOTT colonisation in two water taps in scrub areas and in one of the hypothermia machines in the institute.

'The whole water system in the hospital has gone through intense hyperchlorination and desired levels have been achieved,' he said. He said that the false ceiling in...

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