Lyari gets NICVD’s satellite centre with key facilities

Executive Director National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) Prof Nadeem Qamar inaugurated Sindh’s 9th and Karachi’s first satellite centre of the cardiac health facility at Lyari General Hospital on Monday and vowed to establish another cardiac hospital in the city to cater to the growing needs of heart patients in the metropolis.

“Today, we have inaugurated 9th Satellite Center of the NICVD at Lyari General Hospital where all types of cardiac-care facilities, including primary PCI or angioplasty in case of heart attack, are available. From now onwards, residents of Lyari would not have to go to the main NICVD in case of heart attack as they would be treated near their abodes in Lyari,” he said while talking to journalists after the inaugurating the satellite centre.

Accompanied by eminent cardiologist Prof Javed Akbar Sial, Administrator NICVD Lyari Incharge Malik Nasarullah, Head of Pharmacy Services NICVD Jibran Bin Yousuf and Medical Superintendent Lyari General Hospital Dr Anwar Pallari, Prof Qamar inspected various sections as well as the newly-installed Cath machine at the health facility and assured the visiting patients that from now onwards they would not have to visit the main NICVD for any heart-related intervention as all the facilities would be available at the Lyari centre.

He maintained that except for bypass surgeries for the time being, all the cardiac-care services, including angiography and angioplasty, Primary PCI, all types of heart implants, echocardiography (Echo), X-ray, labs and OPDs for both adults and children would be available at the Lyari Satellite Centre. He added that in future if they managed to get some bigger and spacious building, they could even think of starting heart surgeries in Lyari.

“And we also need to establish another major cardiac hospital in Karachi to cater to heart-health needs of people as at the moment we are overflowing with patients at the main NICVD and cannot treat all of them. This new facility could either be the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) in Azizabad or could be established at any other hospital building, which has been completed by the Sindh government but still lying vacant,” Prof Qamar said.

The Lyari Satellite Centre would be linked with the chest pain units (CPUs) in its vicinity and in case the main NICVD’s emergency was overburdened with patients, some of the heart attack patients could be shifted to the Lyari General Hospital’s Satellite Centre for Primary PCI or angioplasty after heart attack.

“By the end of November this year, we are also going to establish five or six more chest pain units, link them with the main NICVD and our satellite centre in Lyari to save as many lives after heart attacks as possible,” he said and added that “time is muscle” after heart attacks and sooner a patient lands at a proper cardiac facility the better are his or her chances of survival.

Responding to queries regarding the Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD) program, Prof Qamar said they performed five LVAD transplants last year, of which two patients survived. He added that due to the absence of trained staff for post-operative care of LVAD transplant patients, they had temporarily suspended the program.

“Currently, we are in the process of getting our staff trained to provide proper care to patients after LVAD transplants and as soon as our staff is fully trained, we would restart this program,” he said, adding that at the moment, 95 percent of all the cardiac-care treatment facilities in the world were available at the NICVD and its network of hospitals.

Regarding the availability of paediatric cardiology services, he said trained and qualified surgeons from Canada and local private hospitals had joined the NICVD while two more surgeons had locally been trained to perform paediatric surgeries. He added that they were in the process of having a complete paediatric cardiology complex at the NICVD to deal with cardiac-health issues of infants and children.