Costly MIBI scan test: Cardiac patients facing problems

PESHAWAR: Cardiac patients have been facing problems as the only MIBI scan machine for viability in the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) has been out of order for the past two years, forcing patients to pay heavy amounts to a private hospital for the same test in Peshawar.

Interestingly, LRH, which is stated to be a role model for the rest of the medical teaching institutions (MTIs), neither the most powerful figure, Dr Nausherwan Burki nor the hospital director, Brig (r) Dr Abrar Khan had any knowledge of the important machine lying non-functional in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s oldest and largest public sector hospital.

According to health experts, a cardiac viability scan is done to assess how much heart muscle has been damaged by a heart attack or heart disease.

The same test is advised by both, cardiologists before angioplasty, and cardiac surgeons prior bypass surgery on a patient.

According to sources, patients advised MIBI scan patients are referred to a private hospital in Hayatabad where they pay more than Rs18000 for the test.

“Some of patients can’t afford it and they come back to us as the same test is not entertained in the Sehat card. The doctors of cardiac surgery and cardiology departments have gotten tired of informing the LRH administration but they didn’t take any action to either repair or replace the MIBI scan in the hospital,” a faculty member of the cardiac surgery department told The News.

When reached, Hospital Director Brig (r) Dr Abrar Khan said he had no information that the MIBI scan was out of order. He said he would discuss it with the relevant department.

There has been some significant progress in the LRH after it was declared as MTI, headed by Dr Nausherwan Burki, the architect of so-called health reforms in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa public sector hospitals, but it is widely believed that two important specialties, cardiology and cardiac surgery suffered badly, due a host of reasons.

Both of the departments are lacking strong voices in the form of heads of departments for quite a long time to raise genuine issues of their respective units.

After the retirement of Prof Dr Mohammad Hafizullah as head of the cardiology department in LRH, the important specialty has never been in strong hands.

The department suffered mostly due to infighting of the faculty members and interference of powerful elements in the department.

The same is the case with the cardiac surgery department. Dr Burki had first shut the cardiac surgery department due to its poor CABG results and later opened it for patients but then most of the senior doctors had left the hospital and joined private health facilities. Some of them, including Dr Abdul Malik and Dr Jibran are doing well in a private hospital in Peshawar and their results are stated to be the best.

Some insiders in LRH claim that it was in fact a conspiracy of some elements who misguided Dr Burki against Dr Abdul Malik to force him to quit. They succeeded in their design as Dr Malik left LRH but the ultimate sufferers are the poor cardiac patients.