MULTAN: The expanded emergency ward of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology (CPIC) has not been made functional even four years after the launch of the project.

The CPIC project approved in 2004 had an emergency ward of only 18 beds. It was undertaken to cater to the needs of cardiac patients of south Punjab and parts of Balochistan and Sindh.

As the hospital was made functional on Oct 3, 2007, the influx of cardiac patients accentuated the need for an expanded emergency ward.

On the initiative of the then CPIC executive director, Dr Ali Raza Gardezi, the departmental development sub-committee approved a plan to expand the emergency ward from 18 beds to a 54-bed facility at a cost of Rs155.16 million on May 18, 2009.

The cost of the project was revised and increased in September 2009 to Rs161.631 million. Starting Dec 21, 2009, hardly 25 per cent of the construction work could be completed in one year.

The authorities released only Rs7 million in 2009-10 and gave another Rs25 million next year with a direction to complete the project as early as possible but the provincial government took two more years to release the remaining funds.

In September 2012, the hospital administration dispatched the Schedule for New Expenditure (SNE) regarding the hiring of about 160 required staff for the expanded emergency ward.

The provincial government failed to hire the staff even after one year.

Sources told Dawn that although the building had been completed and equipment installed, the emergency ward could not be made functional without the approval of the SNE.

They said the poor patients were suffering due to inadequate facilities at the hospital which referred the patients to the Nishtar Hospital.

He said the existing capacity of the emergency ward was 21 beds but the hospital was accommodating 34 patients by placing benches and stretchers.

CPIC Executive Director Dr Rana Altaf said the ward would be operational very soon as he was informed by the authorities concerned that the SNE had been approved.

He said 60,636 patients visited the hospital’s OPD in 2013 and the number of patients at the emergency ward was 73,485.

He said the hospital conducted 642 Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgeries, 253 Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)/ Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) surgeries and 978 Valve Replacement surgeries.