NICVD system treats 6,000 patients daily from across Pakistan: Prof Qamar

As many as 6,000 patients from across Pakistan daily avail cardiac-care facilities, ranging from OPD consultations to angiography, angioplasty procedures, open heart surgeries and different types of implants, at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) system spread over entire Sindh free of charge.Around 99 percent of those who benefit from these services are poor and non-influential patients. “Daily 6,000 patients from poor and non-influential class of society from entire Pakistan avail quality cardiac-care services at the NICVD system spread over the entire Sindh province – from Karachi to Ghotki. The NICVD system is comprised dozens of satellites and chest pain units linked to the main hospital in Karachi,” said Executive Director NICVD Prof Nadeem Qamar in a statement on Saturday.He said the NICVD system was now catering to a large number of patients in a single day who were mostly from the poor segment of the society and came from across the country to Sindh to avail free of charge cardiac-care facilities, which were mostly charged in other provinces of the country.“We are daily serving patients from as far as Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, who daily visit the NICVD network of hospitals from Sukkur to Karachi to avail free cardiac treatment because they cannot afford costly cardiac services in other provinces of Pakistan,” Prof Qamar, said adding that not a single penny was charged from patients for world-class procedures and surgeries at the NICVD health system.He further said all the Cath Labs at the NICVD in Karachi and its satellite centres in Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Mithi, Nawabshah, Sehwan, Larkana, Khairpur, Larkana, and Sukkur were fully functional where both primary PCI procedures and elective angiography, angioplasty services were being provided round the clock without any interruption.“Similarly, complicated heart surgeries, including open heart surgeries, are also being performed at the NICVD satellites at Tando Muhammad Khan, Larkana and Sukkur in addition to the main NICVD in Karachi on a daily basis,” he said, adding that not a single rupee was charged from any patient from any part of the country and all health services provided free of charge, irrespective of cast, creed and faith at the NICVD system.At the same time, around a dozen chest pain units of the NICVD were also functional at different locations in Karachi and Ghotki as well as in the Tando Bago town where hundreds of patients were daily provided emergency services in case of chest pain and heart attack, he maintained.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2Q07YfZ