March 9, 2002	Saturday	Zilhaj 24, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, March 8: The NWFP Governor, Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, has called for the promotion of research on more strong footings to ensure better health care to the patients, and said: ‘‘We can not depend upon the west for every thing and have to have our own statistical data.’’

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 15th Biennial Cardiology Conference at a local hotel on Friday, he said :” The bond between the past and future is anchored in the present, and we have to invest in the present for a brighter future.”

The governor declared to extend cardiac catheterization facilities in Lady Reading Hospital as well as Hayatabad Medical Complex and Khyber Teaching Hospital. The day, he added, was not far when all these facilities would be available at the district level.

About the existing facilities, he said the eight-bedded CCU started in 1980 had developed and grown into three full-fledged departments in all the teaching hospitals of Peshawar, which provided the latest facilities in investigational and interventional cardiology.

The governor also stressed the need of dissemination of general information with emphasis on prevention. The general practitioners, he said, should also be educated about the latest guidelines on disease management and interventions.

The cardiac society should come up with some concrete proposals which, he added, would be implemented at all levels of the society, to create awareness of heart problems. This should go a long way in fulfilling our dream of having a healthy Pakistan, he remarked.

He said the government offered all the non-invasive and invasive facilities free to all the deserving and needy patients from Zakat and special fund for the poor, which also included echo, ETT, angiography and even PTCA and stinting, and pacemaker implantation.  

Earlier, Dr Syed Karamat Ali Shah, convener of the conference, while welcoming the guests highlighted the aims and objects of the moot whereas Prof Hamid Shafqat presented the keynote address.  

The conference is being attended by the delegates not only from all over the country, but from abroad as well.

Later, the governor also took round of the exhibition wherein different pharmaceutical companies have set up their stalls.