A healer from across the border

For Dr. Kifayatullah of Pakistan, getting to India was an experience

When Dr. Kifayatullah reaches Islamabad on Wednesday, he will be just in time for his son’s first birthday.

When the International Society of Nephrology selected him for a short term, all-expenses paid training programme on peritoneal dialysis at the Madras Medical Mission Hospital here, he did not realise that just getting to India would be an experience.

An excruciating wait for visa; lengthy interviews; instructions that he must buy a return ticket to Pakistan; and a 20-hour travel to reach Chennai via Abu Dhabi instead of crossing the Wagah border in less than 30 minutes, he has seen it all.

Had it easy in Chennai

Originally from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr. Kifayat moved to Islamabad for better education and job opportunities. When he chose India for training, his friends dissuaded him. “Ninety per cent of my friends were against this trip. But now I wish I had brought my wife, who is a pharmacist and my baby son along,” says Dr. Kifayat, employed in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). “I was worried about not getting the visa. But in Chennai, not once was my identity questioned,” he says.

Until Dr. Kifayat applied for visa, he did not make much of the border skirmishes and the constant bickering between the two governments. Out of fear for his safety, he did not reveal his nationality to many when he trained at a city hospital.

His training will help set up a peritoneal dialysis centre in PIMS. “We don’t have peritoneal dialysis in Pakistan. We don’t have enough machines to do haemodialysis. Our government is interested in improving healthcare and infrastructure. During his previous term, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had ensured that the government would bear the entire cost of dialysis for citizens. In Punjab, the most populous State, dialyses are done free of cost. But patients are increasing day by day and we need more resources,” he says.

“We in India and Pakistan share ancestry, food, culture and status. We can learn so much from each other if we could travel more easily. I am happy I can apply what I learned here in my country,” Dr. Kifayat adds as he prepares for his long journey home.