March 28, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1429

KARACHI, March 27: The establishment of a paediatric cardiology surgery unit at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) has been delayed mainly due to the non-availability of the relevant staff, it is learnt.

Observers recall that keeping in view a lack of surgeons with specialisations in neonate cardiology, the executive director of the NICVD, Prof Azhar Masood A. Faruqui, had around 14 months ago announced at a ceremony that he would invite Pakistani experts working abroad and hire their services for the proposed unit at the NICVD.

However, he reportedly failed to lure foreign-based Pakistani experts who normally found the emoluments promised against various assignments much less than what they usually earn abroad.

Despite advertising the paediatric cardio surgery project in the newspapers, the NICVD failed to receive any offer from the relevant experts, a source at the institute said.

At that time, the NICVD had decided to acquire the services of foreign surgeons, anaesthesiologists and other technical staff under a contract system against a remuneration of Rs150,000 per month. The NICVD was to hire the services of about 14 relevant staff, including two surgeons and two anaesthesiologists from abroad.

While works pertaining to a couple of theatres and relevant intensive care facilities for major surgery of children, including those aged one year or less, were somehow in progress it was the acute shortage of skilled doctors that made the proposed unit a far cry, said another source in the NICVD.

According to health professionals, a dearth of paediatric cardio-surgeons and other experts in the country has been felt for quite long.

They claimed that the existing medical education, specialisation system and above all government indifference in this regard could be blamed for the current crisis.

A senior health professional deplored that over the year only three to four paediatric cardiology surgery sections had been established at private and public sector institutions in the country.

Stressing the need for an expansion of paediatric cardiology facilities, a senior paediatric cardiologist estimated that about 50,000 children in Pakistan were born with heart defects every year. As against none in 1980, the country had 13-15 paediatric cardiologists today, but what we needed now was to increase the manpower in this area, he added.

However, the NICVD has now decided to try another option to get the project materialized without further wasting time.

The executive director of the NICVD, Prof Faruqui, said that it had been decided to branch off three of the general cardiology surgeons at the NICVD to paediatric cardiology surgery by sending them abroad for training.

He said that the surgeons selected for training abroad would be elevated to the ranks of assistant professors. They would be sent abroad as soon as the board of governors of the NICVD approved the relevant proposals, he said, adding that the personnel selected had been handling adult cardiac cases successfully at the institute.

The NICVD chief hoped that the three surgeons after separate training in the fields of surgery, anaesthesiology and intensives would play a significant role in reducing neonates’ heart problems.

He said that children below one year were considered as the high-risk group, and the establishment of the special unit for their cardiac surgery would surely prove to be a major initiative.

Prof Faruqui told Dawn that medical teams from the USA and Ireland each would soon start visiting the NICVD on regular intervals for two years with the purpose to extend (paediatric surgery) training to the technical staff of the institute.

Replying to a question, the executive director said that a 64-slice CT angiography machine would be installed soon, while seven new operation theatres and two new surgical ICUs with special facilities for paediatric surgery would also be finalised during the year.

He hoped that the paediatric cardiology surgery unit of the NICVD would go functional by the end of 2008.