KARACHI: Chest pain centres’ fate hangs in balance
KARACHI, April 23: The city government’s plans for setting up chest pain centres in 11 towns have been hanging in the balance for over a year due to the negligence of concerned city government authorities.
Sources told Online that the former city government had set up two chest pain centres in Malir and Korangi in the last days of its tenure while the remaining centres were supposed to be completed within the next one year.
However, the change of the city government has delayed the project due to the reasons better known to the incumbent administration.
The two centres, established by the former city government, are also lying non-functional for the last one year owing to non-appointment of required medical staff, sources said.
The former city government had planned to establish chest pain centres in 11 towns, which were to be linked with the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) with a view to providing emergency cardiac treatment to patients at early stage before admitting them to the KIHD, sources added.
The chest pain centres were to be set up in Orangi, SITE, North Karachi, Liaquatabad, Jamshed Town, Malir, Shah Faisal, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Landhi, Gadap and Bin Qasim towns.
A sum of Rs10 million had been allocated by the former City Nazim, Niamatullah Khan, for the purpose in the current fiscal.
The proposed chest pain centres would be at a distance of 15 to 20 minutes from anywhere in the city.
It is to be mentioned that the appointment of 396 doctors and paramedics for the KIHD has also been delayed apparently due to lack of interest of concerned city government authorities.
Presently, the hospital is providing facilities of OPD, angiography and angioplasty while its emergency ward for 24 hours and the critical care unit (CCU) is not functioning due to shortage of paramedics.
The city government has so far not chalked out the schedule of new expenditure (SNE) for getting approval of the Sindh government to appoint doctors and paramedical staff for the 11 chest pain centres, sources said.
At least, 100 employees are needed for the proposed chest pain centres, sources maintained.
Sources said two NGOs had offered its services to the former city government for the centres with an estimated cost of Rs20 million. Talks in that regard were under way when the local government was dissolved, sources added.—Online
