NICVD’s eighth chest pain unit opens in Landhi

Sindh Information Minister Barrister Murtaza Wahab has said that unlike the federal government which is making healthcare unaffordable by increasing prices of medicines, the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government is providing quality healthcare facilities to the masses near their abodes, which is evident from the establishment of satellite centres and chest pain units of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in the province.

“Unlike the federal government which believes in making healthcare unaffordable by increasing prices of medicines, the PPP-led Sindh government has provided quality healthcare facilities to the people by establishing NICVD’s satellite centres in different major cities of Sindh as well as chest pain units at different places in Karachi, he said while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the 8th Chest Pain Unit of the NICVD at Landhi No. 3 ½ on Tuesday.

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, Executive Director NICVD Prof Nadeem Qamar, Amin Hashwani, Senior Director Health Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Dr Birbal Genani, eminent cardiologist Prof Nadeem Rizvi, Dr Malik Hameedullah and other senior physicians and officials were also present on the occasion.

In the second phase of its Chest Pain Unit Program in Karachi, the NICVD has established its 8th CPU in the Landhi area to provide immediate relief and first aid in case of heart attack to the people of Landhi and the adjoining areas so that their lives could be saved before they could reach the NICVD for further intervention, Wahab explained and added that in a city of 20 million people where it took hours to travel from one place to other, these CPUs were a blessing for the Karachiites and had saved thousands of lives during the last one year.

“During the last one year, seven chest pain units of the NICVD saved the lives of over 5,000 people who were having heart attacks while over 150,000 people approached these CPUs who were given first aid and medical advice,” he said, adding that the NICVD was planning to establish eight more such CPUs at different places in the city so that more lives could be saved.

Wahab said that after the passage of the 18th amendment when the NICVD was devolved to Sindh, the provincial government expanded this facility to entire Sindh and now people were getting quality cardiac-care facilities closer to their homes. “Now instead of coming to Karachi, a resident of Ghotki goes to the NICVD Sukkur for angioplasty and bypass surgery. People living in and around Larkana avail cardiac treatment in their own city, while people of Tharparkar avail quality cardiac treatment in Mithi instead of rushing to Karachi.”

The information advisor claimed that when the NICVD was devolved to the provincial government, its annual budget was merely Rs700 million which had been increased to Rs14 billion by the provincial government. He added that the NICVD had become a model institution where people from across Pakistan were coming to get treatment.

To a query, Wahab said the NICVD’s network was being expanded outside Sindh and, in this regard, the first satellite centre of the cardiac facility would be established in another province where land was being acquired. “The announcement of the name of the province where this satellite centre is to be established would be made by Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.”

Responding to queries of media persons, he said that following the example of the NICVD and the Trauma Centre, satellite centers of the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) would also be established in different cities of Sindh to facilitate the masses and provide them better health facilities.

Mayor Akhtar thanked the government and Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for expanding state-of-the-art cardiac care facilities in Karachi and the rest of the province, saying the KMC was also part of the process for establishing chest pain units in different areas of the city. “These CPUs are saving thousands of precious lives by providing immediate relief to patients after heart attacks and we are proud to be part of this program.

“The NICVD is one of the best healthcare facility in Pakistan and we standby the NICVD. The KMC would do whatever possible to support and expand this institution.” Prof Nadeem Qamar said that during the last four years, the NICVD had completely transformed into one of the best cardiac healthcare facilities of the world which treated over a million patients in a year, performed thousands of surgeries and angioplasties, carried out hundreds of complicated interventions and saved thousands of lives through its network spread over eight cities of the province.

“Now we are establishing the 8th Chest Pain Unit of the NICVD while eight more such units would be installed in Karachi this year. The Chest Pain Unit program of the NICVD is a unique initiative which has saved over 5,000 lives in a year and daily hundreds of patients visit these units for heart attack management.”

Prof Qamar thanked the government for its continuous support for the NICVD and assured it that they would continue serving the people of Sindh and the rest of the country by providing them state-of-the-art cardiac facilities and services.