BAPRAS' President visits Pakistan in February 2023

In February, Mr Maniram Ragbir visited Pakistan at the kind invitation of Mr. Muhammad Riaz Malik and the Pakistan Association of Plastic Surgeons (PAPS).
Mr Ragbir recounted his trip for the foreword of the BAPRAS Secretariat Bulletin;

"The month of February has been dominated by my visit to Pakistan at the kind invitation of Mr. Muhammad Riaz Malik and the Pakistan Association of Plastic Surgeons (PAPS). It will certainly be a trip that I will not forget.

 It started with an early morning landing at Islamabad and a two-hour road trip to Peshawar to visit the 120 bedded, Burns and Plastic Surgery Center (BPSC) which is part of the Hyatabad Medical Complex. It is the first Burns Center in the region and the nearest one to Afghanistan from which it receives 40% of its admissions, thus needing all 60 of the beds allocated to burns. The following day, I had the honour of speaking at a Head and Neck symposium organised by Professor Tahmeed, Head of Department and President-elect of PAPS.

  

After the symposium in Peshawar, it was straight back to Islamabad to meet Professor Mamoon Rashid (previous Gillies lecturer) and his team at Shifa International Hospital.

The following day we visited the Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi headed by a previous BFIRST fellow, Professor Husnain Khan. Again, we were impressed with the great work being done with limited resources.

We then headed to Lahore, where we had a tour of the state-of-the-art Jinnah Burns and Reconstructive Surgery Center (JBRSC), which was the subject of the most recent McIndoe lecture by Professor Moazzam Tarar. This centre leads the way in subspecialisation in plastic surgery in Pakistan. It is also home to the administrative office of PAPS. It leads microsurgery training in Pakistan, the brainchild of our association secretary Umraz Khan and my colleague and council member Omar Ahmed.


From JBRSC, we visited King Edward Medical University which hosts the oldest plastic surgery unit in the Punjab, established in 1987 by Professor Abdul Hakim Babar and now led by Professor Mustehsan Bashir. They play an impressive role in research and innovation with one member of faculty, Dr. Afzaal Bashir, holding no less than 15 patents!

From Lahore, we travelled to Multan where we were shown around the new Pak-Italian Burns and Plastic Surgery Center in Nishtar Medical University. This facility has hosted numerous courses with international faculty, including members of our association such as Muhammad Riaz and Azhar Iqbal.

 Our next stop was Bahawalpur, the hosting unit for PAPSCON led by Professor Mughese Amin. This 3-day conference highlighted the range of plastic surgery services across Pakistan with a good mix of Pakistani and International Faculty, many of whom were from the United Kingdom. I attended the ‘Women in Plastic Surgery’ session and was heartened by the great turnout and enthusiasm.
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 The last leg of my tour took me from Bahawalpur to the Cleft Hospital of Pakistan in Gujrat. I was most impressed with the volume of patients being operated upon and the multidisciplinary ethos of the team. The emphasis on quality of care and long-term follow-up of the patients will hopefully serve as a model of cleft care in Pakistan. The major role played by BAPRAS members such as Mr. Riaz is a great example for us all to contribute in a similar way wherever we can."