PESHAWAR: Peshawar Institute of Cardiology has decided to help restart cardiac surgeries in Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, besides establishing satellite centres in Mardan and Swat to provide treatment to the patients suffering from heart ailments.

“We have performed 1,100 heart surgeries and checked over 30,000 patients in outpatients department in addition to 5,000 angiographies and 5,353 other procedures since establishment of the institute a year ago. The decision to start satellite centres has been taken in view of the increasing number of patients from across the province,” PIC Medical Director Prof Shahkar Ahmed Shah told Dawn.

He said that birth heart defects in 136 children were removed without subjecting them to open operations. The 295-bed public sector PIC has the services of 23 cardiac surgeons and physicians backed by 900 support staff, including 50 medical officers and trainees. It has been the only institute where all surgeries and procedures are carried out free of cost on Sehat Card.

Construction of PIC began in 2005. It was opened to house Covid-19 patients during the peak of the pandemic but coronavirus patients were not admitted there and it began operations, catering to heart surgeries and treatment, both for children and adult.

1,100 patients have been operated upon in the institute since its establishment a year ago

“So far, we have operated upon 205 children and carried out 136 procedures,” said Prof Shahkar. The institute is in the process of getting ISO-certification while inspection would take place for accreditation by Joint Commission International in March next year.

He said that meeting of PIC’s Board of Governors held with its chairman Dr Asif Loya in the chair recently that gave go-ahead for setting more cardiac service centres in the province. He said that they noticed 50 per cent increase in the number of patients.

“We are requesting the government to make available funds to start services in Mardan, Swat and Abbottabad. Our faculty will train enough surgeons and cardiologists to be able to cope with patients locally,” he said. He added that 684 Afghan nationals were examined and 20 were operated upon without charges.

“Our full-fledged emergency department has been of immense significance as the critically-ill patients get timely treatment, which has cut down mortalities from heart diseases,” said Prof Shahkar.

He said that prior to setting up of PIC, those services were not available in public sector while the private hospitals were not in the reach of patients owing to their higher charges.

He said that most of the surgeons and physicians in PIC were locals and trained abroad who wanted to upgrade services for their own people. He said that on directives of Health Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra, they were working to further upgrade services not only in PIC but to train doctors and develop latest technologies in different cities of the province.

Many patients in the institute said they had been taking medicines to keep themselves alive despite knowing that surgeries were the only option but high charges in private hospitals hampered their surgeries.

“I have developed heart problem five years ago and doctors in Islamabad advised surgery. The charges of the surgery were Rs700,000 that were not affordable for me,” said Javed Shah, 51, a resident of Abbottabad and a taxi driver by profession.

He said that he had been bed-ridden for the past few years. He said that his two sons were part-time labourers. “PIC becomes a blessing for us and I was operated upon free of cost a week ago. I will be leaving for village soon,” he added.

Wisal Shah, 60, a resident of Afghanistan, who is also among the beneficiaries of PIC, said he had no money to pay for his treatment. “We came to Peshawar and I got admitted here in the last week of December. Early this year, I was operated upon totally free of cost,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2022