PIC Peshawar gearing up for opening its doors to cardiac patients

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar Institute of Cardiology Medical & Teaching Institution (PIC-MTI) is busy preparing to open its doors to patients after much delays caused by indecision on the part of decision-makers, bureaucratic red-tape and inadequate allocation of resources for the much-needed, 15-year old project.

Presently, the 260-bed PIC is recruiting staff, both administrative and clinical. It is nowadays a crowded place due to the rush of applicants who appear for interview. Jobs are still being advertised and the high number of candidates means this task would take time.

The PIC is apparently the oldest healthcare project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as the foundation-stone for its building in Hayatabad, Peshawar was laid in 2005 when the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, (MMA) an alliance of six religio-political parties, was in power. The MMA didn’t allocate the required resources for the PIC, which was to cost Rs5 billion, even though it remained in power until 2008. The next government, a coalition of Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), completely ignored the project during its five-year rule until 2013.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in KP from 2013-2018 also didn’t take any meaningful step to make the PIC operational. At one stage, 90 percent of the civil works was completed, but funds weren’t made available to equip, staff and run the only cardiac hospital in the province.

The project started moving ahead in 2015 when Dr Nausherwan Burki, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s US-based cousin and the architect of reforms in public sector hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, evinced interest in the PIC. He brought it under the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar headed by him. However, it led to a legal battle as the decision was challenged in the Peshawar High Court, which directed the formation of a separate BoG for the PIC.

The project has seen progress in recent years as the needed resources were allocated to complete the civil works, procure equipment, create jobs and take other steps to make it functional.

Professor Dr Shahkar Ahmed Shah, one of the pioneers of cardiac surgery in Pakistan, was appointed the PIC Medical Director on March 1, 2020. He has been a consultant cardiac surgeon for more than 30 years and has worked in major public and private hospitals in different cities of Pakistan. He also worked in the UK and Saudi Arabia. He was quoted as saying recently that he was aiming to provide state-of-the-art cardiology and cardiac surgery facilities to the patients. The plan was to have six operation theatres and six catheter laboratories at the PIC.

Though the PIC is now geared to become operational in the near future, the authorities need to keep the momentum as there are still misgivings as to when this would happen due to past delays. In fact, the delays dampened the enthusiasm of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons working abroad, mostly in Western countries, who were keen to return home to work at the PIC. Sources said some of them had lost hope and considered changing their decision to seek jobs at the PIC. However, they may still come as the PIC is likely to become functional in the near future.

The KP government decision to use the new building of the PIC for the treatment of coronavirus patients also caused uncertainty. Fearing a new wave of the pandemic, the government wanted to be ready to cope with the rush of patients and using the PIC for this purpose was one of the decisions made on an emergent basis. Doctors and other healthcare staff have been coming to the PIC as they wait for new Covid-19 patients. However, doctors and patients are hoping that this decision would not delay further the operationalization of the PIC.