KARACHI: To strengthen its outpatient and emergency services, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) on Monday announced the hospital’s upcoming expansion and rehabilitation programme to be launched in a week.

Speaking at a press conference at a hotel, NICVD’s chief operating officer, Azra Maqsood, and other senior officials said as one of the largest cardiac facilities in terms of patients’ turnover in the province, the NICVD had launched an “aggressive plan” since February last year to totally revamp patient care.

This included the induction of professional management officers at senior levels, more specialist doctors and nurses, advanced facilities with the most modern machines and equipment, they said.

Officials also said they that around 80 families of the employees had been given compensation to vacate the premises of the hospital. The payment includes three-year house rents and education expenditure of their children.

They expected the expansion plan to be launched within a week.

Since May last year, the NICVD had performed more than 2,500 primary angioplasties on highly subsidised rates and in some cases free of cost, Ms Maqsood said. “This number is globally high figure for a seven-month period.”

Highlighting other achievements of the hospital, she said it was the first public-sector cardiac hospital to perform a successful transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

The COO of NICVD further said the number of emergency and outpatient department (OPD) patients had phenomenally increased in the past few years, warranting the administration to construct a new building on 80,000 square feet to further extend their OPD and emergency services. She said the hospital administration was trying to improve patient care and turn the NICVD into a model cardiac hospital.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2016