KARACHI: Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab on Wednesday inaugurated mini intensive care units and two catheterisation laboratories at Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) which were lying “dysfunctional for years”.

Addressing the launching ceremony at the hospital, he vowed to bring more value to the KMC-owned facility where the angiography services had also been resumed.

He also lauded the services of KIHD team which had performed in “challenging situation” with least resources.

“Today, we inaugurated the Blue Room with 10 mini ICUs,” he said. “Five out of two Cath [catheterisation] labs have also started working which were dysfunctional for years. I hope that with these new initiatives, facilities will be further improved at the hospital to serve our people across the city and other parts of the country.”

He referred to the recently launched nursing school at KIHD which was operating with full capacity, where 130 students were enrolled solely on scholarships and other 140 were getting education against nominal fee.

“Here I must congratulate the KIHD team and salute their services,” said Mayor Wahab. “When we had planned to revive the cath labs, we were told that it could cost Rs120million to Rs190m. But you would be surprised to learn that our team revived that facility at only two million rupees, saving millions of public money.”

He said the KIHD served the best to the people from west and central districts and even parts of east were closer to the facility than National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD).

“From various neighbourhoods of central, west and east districts, you can reach here, at KIHD much earlier saving time, which is crucial in medical emergencies,” he said.

The mayor said the KMC facilities, including those offering healthcare services, could perform much better under public-private partnerships.

He explained that with such programmes the KMC would utilise its several abandoned assets to offer better services.

He said people would get access to those services nearest to their homes.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2024