KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has laid the foundation stone of a 200-bed paediatric cardiac surgery unit the Sindh government will build within two years at an estimated cost of Rs1,800 million in the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Karachi.

The chief minister said at the annual symposium of the NICVD in a local hotel on Saturday night that the addition of a separate paediatric cardiac surgery unit would prove to be a milestone for treatment of heart diseases in children and the unit would benefit people of the entire country.

“If the NICVD is given under complete administrative control of the Sindh government, we will take extraordinary measures to equip this institute with modern facilities beyond the expectations of the people and medical fraternity,” he said.

He lauded services of the NICVD for catering to the needs of diagnosis, management and prevention of cardiovascular diseases not only in Sindh but also in whole Pakistan.

He said the Sindh government was establishing new hospitals at district and taluka level while rural health centres, basic health units and dispensaries were being equipped with modern facilities so that the people could be provided best possible healthcare on their doorstep.

Referring to hardships being faced by people of Tharparkar the chief minister said that doctors were unwilling to perform duties in the desert region amid alarming drought conditions but the government managed to attract them to the area by enhancing salary packages and providing other incentives to them.

Earlier, executive director and chairman of the Academic Faculty of the NICVD Prof Khan Shah Zaman thanked the chief minister for his keen interest in the establishment of the paediatric cardiac surgery unit and highlighted the importance of the symposium.

Provincial secretary for health Iqbal Hussain Durrani and Dr Zafarullah of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan and Dr Hameedulla Malik of the NICVD also spoke.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014