PESHAWAR: The Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, has said it carried out more than 10,000 cardiac procedures last year, the highest by any health centre in the province.

Dr Jabar Ali, head of the LRH’s interventional cardiology department, told Dawn that 10,503 heart surgeries and other procedures of international standards were carried out in 2025.

He said most patients availed themselves of free diagnostic facilities and treatment under the Sehat Card Plus health insurance programme.

“We don’t have a paediatric surgeon but our paediatric cardiologists perform procedures percutaneously and are fully capable of carrying out all types of surgeries that are available elsewhere in the country, “ he said.

Performs over 10,000 surgeries last year under Sehat Card Plus programme

Dr Ali said around 500 paediatric procedures were performed last year.

He said the oldest hospital in the province had only two cath labs where all heart procedures were performed except the transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

The department’s head said workshops were conducted last year on advanced technology for calcified lesions, featuring intravascular lithotripsy, while multiple advanced cardiology workshops were planned, reinforcing the hospital’s leadership in interventional cardiology.

He said the hospital had planned two international workshops in April.

“We have been introducing innovative procedures to ensure high quality healthcare for the people. Last year, a paediatric cardiology UK mission performed 70 free procedures, including complex interventions such as coarctation of aorta stenting for the first time and patent foramen ovale closure for the first time at the LRH,” he said.

The cardiologist said the mission consisting of 15 paediatric cardiac surgeons representing Muntada AID, a UK-based charity group, performed complex heart procedures for which patients were prepared beforehand.

He added that the mission was expected to visit this year, too.

“A single procedure cost around Rs1.5 million, with the patients being aged between five months and 20 years. They all are doing well,” he said.

Spokesman for LRH Mohammad Asim said last year, 2.2 million patients visited the hospital, with 1,45,000 being hospitalised and 25,000 undergoing major surgeries.

He said 116,000 critically-ill or injured patients received treatment at the accidents and emergency department completely free of charge.

“More than 27,000 births were recorded at the hospital’s labour room,” he said. The spokesman said the 1800-bed hospital, largest in the province, provided treatment to most of the violence-hit people in the province.

He said keeping in view the vast experience of handling the terror-hit people, the LRH’s doctors had been imparting training to medics from other provinces.

Mr Asim said the accident and emergency department was the first such facility in the public sector to get recognition in emergency medicine by College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan.

“Our experts also visit abroad to share expertise in coping with violence and calamity-affected patients,” he said.

The spokesman said the emergency department had the services of trauma specialists where operating theatres, blood bank, pharmacy and CT scan, ultrasound, X-ray and pathological facilities were available under one roof, while patients received implants, blood and surgical disposable free of charge.

“Though terrorism caused massive destruction and deaths in the province, we upgraded our facilities and skills of health professionals to effectively manage trauma incidents,”he said.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2026