PESHAWAR, July 19: NWFP Finance Secretary Ziaur Rehman has urged doctors to try to identify reasons for a recent surge in cardiac diseases.

“Cardiac ailments have registered a surge due to lack of awareness among people about the causative agents of heart problems which can be overcome through local research in this vital branch of medical science,” he told a workshop organised by the cardiology department of the Lady Reading Hospital on Wednesday.

The event was meant to introduce latest techniques in echocardiography and Doppler to cardiologists of the province.

He praised the efforts of the cardiology department for the development of health services and hoped that such efforts would go a long way in bringing much-needed improvement in the area of cardiac diagnosis and treatment services.

He hoped that with the provision of the latest machinery the cardiology department would be further strengthened, and added that it was encouraging to observe that the department had been revamped and one could take pride in having advanced equipment in the public sector.

He said that the recent increase in the grant for ‘entitlement to poor patients’ to Rs30 million should further help the department in expanding its services and offering newer services.

He eulogized the services of Prof Waheed A Sahibzada, Prof Karamat Ali Shah and Prof Aziz Gul Mufti for the development of cardiac services in the province.

The secretary finance was appreciative of the research work being done by cardiologists and urged them to carry out research on local patients.

The head of cardiology department, Dr Mohammad Hafizullah, informed participants that the department had conducted 16 courses on Advanced Cardiac Life Support apart from imparting training to 640 doctors, nurses, paramedical and medical students.

Six courses on ECG training have been conducted in which more than 300 doctors, nurses, paramedics and medical students have been trained.

He said that the department had three functional cardiac catheterization laboratories and said that the department was offering latest services such as implantation of newer devices like cardiac defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy.

The echocardiography department has the distinction of having six machines; the machines are inter-connected and displayed live on a 40-inch monitor.

This has reduced the waiting list of patients and made it possible to offer quality services like tissue doppler imaging, stress echocardiography, portable echo service and multi-plane trans-esophageal echocardiography.