NICVD now offers ‘free’ emergency angioplasty

Move made possible after Sindh govt approves Rs380m a year for the public hospital

Starting the first day of Ramazan, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) is offering “free of charge” emergency angioplasty for stroke patients, The News learnt on Saturday.

After the Sindh government’s approval of Rs380 million a year for the NICVD, everyone brought to the institute with heart attack, multi-vessel coronary artery disease or unstable angina can undergo “free” percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

“From Maghrib (sunset) on Saturday, the official start of Ramazan, free primary PCI has started at the NICVD,” the institute’s executive director, Prof Dr Nadeem Qamar, told The News.

A couple of weeks ago, the NICVD had announced implanting costly life-saving devices “absolutely free” to patients whose heart muscles are extremely weak and who need artificial stabilisers to keep their heartbeat normal and in rhythm for a healthy life.

PCI, also known as primary PCI or coronary angioplasty, costs between Rs200,000 and Rs300,000 at private hospitals and Rs80,000 at the NICVD, but majority of the patients treated at the public health facility could not even pay a few thousand rupees due to their poor socio-economic background.

“Keeping in view the economic conditions of the people brought to the NICVD after heart attacks, we had requested the Sindh government to provide us Rs380 million so that we could perform this inevitable cardiac intervention free of charge. Today the government gave us the green signal,” said Prof Qamar.

Between May 18, 2015 and May 18, 2017 cardiac surgeons at the NICVD performed 7,400 primary PCIs on heart attack and other patients, which is a world record, but after making the cardiac intervention “absolutely free”, the institute’s administration expects to perform around 5,000 PCIs within a year from now.

Prof Qamar said they used to perform at least 10 primary PCIs a day at the NICVD at the rate of Rs80,000 per patient, adding that after offering the procedure “free of charge”, the number of patients could jump to 15 to 18 a day.

According to him, earlier stroke patients were injected with the Streptokinase enzyme, an old and obsolete procedure, but for the past few years primary angioplasty or PCI was being performed at the NICVD because it was the most recommended treatment being offered to heart attack patients across the world.

He stated that the NICVD was already performing paediatric cardiac surgeries
for free in its general ward, adding that all the other procedures, including angioplasty, bypass and medical tests, were being carried out on highly subsidised rates.

Prof Qamar said that they performed 3,604 primary angioplasties in 2015, a world record, and added that after getting the required amount from the provincial government they would be able to increase the number of surgeries conducted in a year.

He said the public health facility was also increasing the number of other facilities, including ventilators, beds and outpatient department services.

He added that since the devolution of health services from the federal government to the Sindh administration, the NICVD’s grant had been increased up to three times to facilitate a large number of people who visit the hospital on a daily basis.

“We receive cardiac patients daily from entire Sindh and Balochistan, and many of them can’t even afford the cost of primary PCI.

“Free procedures would facilitate such patients and rid them of paying the fees in instalments.”