KARACHI: The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) has been renamed as the Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (SICVD) following a government notification.

Earlier, the Sindh Assembly had approved a resolution in this respect.

The SICVD, former NICVD, is the world’s biggest health network for cardiovascular patients comprising 10 hospitals and 22 chest-pain units across the province.

According to officials, nearly 1.9 million patients were given free-of-cost medical treatment at the SICVD, which included 3,227 cardiac surgeries and 17,000 percutaneous coronary interventions last year.

In November 2021, the doctors at the facility had removed a blood clot from the brain of a patient with paralysis stroke.

Emerging from the small Central Heart Clinic in Ward 10 of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) in 1956, the institute became fully functional tertiary cardiac-care centre on Aug 14, 1971 with the support from the federal government, USAID and Japanese government.

Eight years operating as a non-governmental organisation, it was nationalised in 1979 by the government and became an autonomous body under the federal ministry of health.

The present governing body of the SICVD comes under the administrative control of the Sindh government with the chief minister as the chairman of its board of governors.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2022