PESHAWAR: The health department has sought Rs1 billion for the establishment of cardiac catheterisation labs at the divisional headquarters hospitals in the province to provide speedy care to heart patients in their own areas.

The health department sent a letter to the chief minister’s secretariat last week saying at least one cardiac catheterisation lab should be established in each administrative division of the province to ensure that patients get timely diagnostic and treatment services.

The letter was sent in response to the chief minister’s directions issued to the health department during the Sept 27 cabinet meeting to examine the feasibility of making the services of interventionist cardiologists available across the province.

Health dept says at least one such facility needed in every division

The health department later carried out an assessment of the current situation with regard to the existence of cardiac services at divisional headquarters of all seven administrative divisions in the province and pointed out the desired human resources, equipment and infrastructure for setting up cardiac catheterisation labs there and availability of space for the facilities required.

The officials said such services were available at the Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar division and Abbottabad Ayub Medical Complex in Hazara division only.

They said a scheme approved in 2013 to set cardiac catheterisation lab at the Saidu Group of Teaching Hospitals, Mingora, had yet to be executed.

The officials said the scheme for which a PC-1 had already been approved was under process and the equipment for catheterisation lab would be procured as soon as the building was in place.

However, the relevant doctors insisted work on the project was unlikely to be completed any time soon due to the low budgetary allocations.

They said the project’s cost was Rs200 million but the government had allocated just Rs25 million in the 2017-18 annual development programme.

The doctors said the project needed a sizeable amount of money for successful execution.

The health department has also given a breakdown of the amount required for a single cardiac catheterisation lab at the divisional level and said one such unit needed Rs50 million for infrastructure development and Rs200 for procurement of equipment and therefore, its overall cost totaled Rs250 million.

It pointed out that one cath lab needed two posts of cardiac interventionists, one of cardiovascular surgeon and four each of cardiac technicians and support staff members.

According to the letter sent by the health secretary to the chief minister’s secretariat, only Peshawar and Hazara divisions have fully functional cardiology units at the medical teaching institutions, where establishment of such labs needs no funds, while the Malakand division will get one after the completion of the Saidu Group Hospitals, which will require staff for such lab.

It added that four divisions, including Mardan, Kohat, Bannu and DI Khan, would need cardiac catheterisation labs to be established at the divisional headquarters for which the department was in need of Rs1 billon, which didn’t cover the payment of salary to staff members.

Meanwhile, the cardiologists told Dawn that the province desperately required to establish cath labs at the divisional headquarters because the people having heart ailments needed rapid treatment.

They said currently, the people from all over the province were being shifted to Peshawar for lack of services at the divisional level.

The cardiologists said the province had enough heart specialists, who could be engaged to operate the new units at divisional level after little training in Peshawar and Abbottabad. They complained that such services weren’t available even at teaching hospitals in Bannu, Dera Ismail, Kohat and Mardan.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2017