PESHAWAR: The public sector Peshawar Institute of Cardiology treated more than 2,500 patients from other provinces, mostly from Punjab, last year for complicated heart issues, said its dean, Prof Syed Shahkar Ahmad Shah.

He told Dawn that patients were mostly referred by cardiologists from other provinces for very complex treatment available at the PIC only and that, too, at affordable rates.

Prof Shah said the people coming in from other provinces and neighbouring Afghanistan paid for the procedures that remained successful.

“Every year, we receive patients from outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because our institute has highly-trained doctors and modern equipment. We are in contact with cardiologists throughout the country who are sending in complicated cases,” he said.

Dean says complicated cases being sent in by cardiologists from across the country

Prof Shahkar, a cardiothoracic surgeon, said another reason for patient arrivals from other provinces was the major and complicated procedures being done at the institute at rates much lower than those of private hospitals in other provinces and that, too, with far better quality.

He, however, said unlike the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa residents who availed all services free of charge under the Sehat Card Plus programme, those coming from other provinces paid for the diagnostic and treatment services by themselves.

The dean said such patients sometimes requested discounts but knew there would be government-fixed charges for diagnostics and treatments, so they willingly paid from their own pockets.

Official statistics show that 2,571 patients presented themselves at the PIC for treatment last year.

They included 1,597 from Afghanistan, 628 from Punjab, 104 from Sindh, 96 from Islamabad, 73 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 48 from Balochistan and 25 from Gilgit-Baltistan.

Officials said the SCP had been used by the people, with national identity cards from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in other provinces for free treatment, especially liver transplants, which weren’t available in local hospitals.

They said people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who had been living in other parts of the country in connection with their jobs and businesses, had been receiving free treatment in all provinces.

The officials said since 2020, 300,000 persons had received free treatment in Punjab, Sindh, Islamabad, Balochistan, AJK and GB.

They said people from Punjab seeking treatment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were paying for the services.

The officials said around 12,000 patients from Punjab received treatment at the Khyber Teaching Hospital last year.

They added that either those patients visited doctors through referral or they lived in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The officials said the situation in other hospitals was the same as people also visited hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the nearby districts of Punjab. They said Bacha Medical Complex Swabi admitted patients from nearby Attock district in the state-of-the-art nursery ward, while patients belonged to different cities.

The officials said last year, doctors at PIC provided treatment to 79,634 patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, mostly free of charge under the SCP, with11,296 being children up to 15 years of age.

They said the 300-bed PIC, the only dedicated hospital for cardiac diseases in the province, was established in December 2020 that had performed several innovative heart surgeries, gaining nationwide reputation.

The officials said heart surgeries were very expensive but SCP had been benefitting the people to undergo procedures comparable to global standards.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2026