KASUR, Jan 30: The Kasur district headquarters hospital has been doing without a cardiologist for the last 10 months, sources said.

The district government had arranged a Rs1.5 million cardiology ward and provided every facility there including four monitors worth one million rupees. However, the health department has failed to appoint a cardiologist so far despite clear instructions of the government in this regard.

According to an estimate, some 600 to 700 patients daily visit the DHQ hospital, many of them suffering from heart ailments.

It is pertinent to mention here that there is no cardiologist in the whole Kasur city and people have to take patients suffering from serious heart ailments to Lahore.

The machines in cardiology ward would go out of order if the DHQ hospital management continued neglecting it, the sources warned.

Meanwhile, outdoor patients told this reporter that doctors prescribed costly medicines to them, which they had to arrange on their own. Some in the emergency ward said that even they had to purchase costly medicines from the market despite the fact that government had ordered provision of free medical care in public hospitals.