KARACHI: The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) has started providing Rs3 billion cardiovascular services to patients of general ward and since July 18, the facility has not charged a single rupee from 95 per cent of its patients.

“[The] NICVD is now providing all the available cardiology services to its almost 95pc patients free of charge including outpatient department, admissions, emergency services, cardiac interventions, elective surgeries, medicines and medical devices without asking for a single penny from them,” NICVD executive director Prof Nadeem Qamar told a news conference at the hospital’s auditorium on Tuesday.

“All these services are being provided without compromising on the quality of treatment,” he added.

Prof Qamar announced renovating all operation theatres at the cardiac centre, establishment of eighth cardiac catheterisation (cath) laboratory to facilitate greater number of patients, induction of second thallium stress machine, and introduction of seven ventilators in the emergency room of the NICVD to save lives of the patients in critical condition.

He said all that could be achieved with grants released by the Sindh government.

“The Sindh government has increased our grant to Rs4bn from Rs1.8bn, helping us provide all the services including costly surgeries, medical tests and placement of life-saving devices free of cost,” he said, adding that since the start of free services, number of patients visiting the hospital was increasing with each passing day.

He said the timings of the OPD services had been extended till 5pm, thus, the number of doctors there had been doubled.

He said anyone who entered the NICVD and chose to be treated as a general ward patient, all available services including OPD consultations, emergency services like primary angioplasty, elective angioplasty, bypass surgery and other cardiac interventions would be provided free of charge.

“Similarly, all medical examinations including ECGs, ETTs, echocardiogram, thallium stress test and other tests would be conducted free of charge,” he said, adding that all medicines and medical equipment required for the treatment and recovery of the patients would also be provided free.

Costly devices like pacemakers, ICDs and CRTs would be implanted free; while paediatric surgeries were already being conducted free of cost.

Satellite centres to be set up across Sindh

The first satellite centre of NICVD had been established at Larkana where during the last one month, around 101 angioplasties had been carried out, Prof Qamar said, adding that the centre would formally be inaugurated on July 30.

He said seven such satellite centres were to be built in the coming few months. Three of them would be built in Tando Mohammad Khan, Sukkur, and Sehwan this year while as many would be established at Benazirabad, Khairpur and Mirpurkhas in 2018.

The media was informed that a three-storey building as the OPD complex was being constructed and would be completed in a year. With its completion, the number of OPDs would be increased manifold to benefit patients from the rest of Sindh and elsewhere in the country.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2017