MMC admin prefers 2nd cardiology unit to improve services

PESHAWAR: The administration of Mardan Medical Complex (MMC) instead of expanding and improving cardiac services has decided to set up the second cardiology unit in a small space where patients used to be accommodated after their recovery from heart attack at the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) or cardiac intensive care unit.

According to sources, certain influential people had cleverly convinced the hospital administration that setting up the second cardiology unit would help them provide better care to the patients.

However, senior faculty members told The News that the decision to establish the second cardiology unit was taken to resolve a longstanding issue between the two senior doctors in the same department.

The MMC administration had notified that the second unit will be made functional on November 1. However, it couldn’t start services there due to reasons best known to them and has now pledged to open it for patients in December.

Dr Israr, district cardiologist, was declared head of the second unit and Dr Asfandyar, a certified cardiologist having done his FCPS in cardiology and working as district cardiologist, and Dr Zakir, medical officer are supposed to help him run the unit.

The MMC has a 13-bed cardiology ward and 9-bed CCU. The cardiology ward remains packed with patients. The same is the case with its CCU, where around 35 patients with acute chest pain and heart attack are brought in a six-hour shift.

Besides handling a large number of cardiac patients from Mardan, those suffering from acute chest pain and heart attack are referred to the cardiology ward from Nowshera, Swabi, Charsadda, Malakand and Buner.

The hospital administration had earlier set up a 9-bed unit for patients brought with chest pain but could not provide it the required qualified staff and equipment.

“This chest pain unit did exit but on paper only. The doctors deputed there were not properly trained in cardiology and this is the reason they never handled patients brought to them with heart attack,” said a senior official of the MMC administration.

He said patients taken to this unit were straightway shifted to CCU.

Pleading anonymity, he said when the cardiology ward and CCU continued to be overcrowded due to heavy flow of patients they began shifting the super normal patients from CCU to the so-called chest pain unit in emergency.

“We used to keep heart attack patients for two days in CCU and then shift them to the same 9-bed chest pain unit in the emergency where they would spend another 24 hours before being sent home,” said the official.

Five medical officers were assigned there to look after the super stable patients.

According to a senior faculty member, the lack of space and beds has become a major issue for them to properly handle the critical heart patients.

“What we are doing at the moment is against the ethics and protocol. A heart attack patient is needed to be admitted in hospital for five days but we send them home after 72 hours due to lack of space,” he said while pleading anonymity.

He said some cardiac patients discharged prematurely develop complications and are brought back to them with serious problems.

He said on occasions they had to place heart attack patients on stretchers to save their lives.

The faculty member said they cannot refuse a patient brought to them from Gadoon in Swabi, Buner, Dargai and Nowshera in critical condition.

“Instead of dividing the existing ward into two units just to please some of the doctors, I will suggest to the Board of Governors to provide us a fluoroscope machine so that we can install pacemakers to patients in MMC. Presently certain doctors are blindly placing pacemakers to patients, which is not ethical,” he added.

Also, the Board of Governors is required to set up Cath lab in MMC and start crucial procedures like angiography and angioplasty.

The cardiologists in MMC have to go to Peshawar for performing these procedures on their patients.

It is interesting to note that in Swabi and Nowshera, there are two teaching hospitals with cardiology departments, trained staff and CCUs but cardiac patients are still sent to the MMC.