ABBOTTABAD: The cardiology unit at Ayub Teaching Hospital will start providing free angiography and angioplasty facilities to poor patients from next month as tenders for purchase of necessary equipment have already been floated.

Dr Umer Hayat Khan, head of department of cardiology, while talking to media persons here on Friday, said the cardiology department established in 2005 had been upgraded and now state of the art machinery was being acquired for the facility.

He said with the appointment of renowned surgeon Dr Imran, who had been working in UK, strength of cardiology department had increased and currently five to six patients were provided angiography with the daily OPD of 60 to 70 patients.

Dr Hayat said number of beds had also been increased to 62 from 38 while number of beds in CCU would be increased up to 24 from 12, adding in Hazara division, Ayub Teaching Hospital’s cardiac unit was the only specialised centre which was taking care of not only the people of entire Hazara but also Muzaffarabad and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Dr Hayat said till date angiography of more than 300 and angioplasty of 70 patients had been done in the hospital and the results were successful.

He said in the CCU all kinds of medicines, including costly injections, were provided free to patients.

Published in Dawn November 26th, 2016