ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: The ministry of health has decided to expand and modernize the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Karachi, at a cost of Rs550 million to serve the increasing number of patients specially of Sindh and Balochistan.
Official sources told Dawn on Tuesday that the health ministry has sought the approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) to undertake the "Replacement of obsolete and condemned equipment" project in the NICVD with a view to largely expand the health services.
The ministry pleaded that the NICVD, which is an autonomous body under the federal government control, is the only hospital of its kind catering to the needs of Sindh and Balochistan besides serving a larger number of patients from Punjab, the NWFP, Afghan refugees and even patients from neighbouring countries.
The hospital has over one million registered heart patients and last year it catered to the needs of half a million people. This number was unmatched by any other cardiac institute in Pakistan or the neighbouring countries, therefore it needed expansion and modernization to be achieved in three-year period.
The ministry has said that the management of the NICVD would charge subsidized 10 to 20 per cent payments from the patients while rest would be offered free of cost.
Once the expansion and modernization would be achieved the hospital would charge Rs10,000 for open heart surgery, Rs4,000 for close heart surgery, Rs6,000 for angiography, Rs20,000 for angioplasty, Rs3,000 for thallium, Rs200 each for echo and ETT.
The ministry also assured that very poor patients and entitled government servants would be provided improved free services. The management of the hospital has informed the health ministry that over the last two decades, the workload of the NICVD has increased ten folds and the cost of equipment, medicines and usable items has also gone very high.
The expansion at the NICVD, the sources said, was essential for smooth functioning and providing the latest surgical, diagnostic, teaching, training and research facilities to the patients, doctors and paramedics.
The new high tech equipment were sought for various departments of the hospital. The existing equipment were procured under Japanese aid in 1986-87 and the equipment have already completed their useful life and most of them have become outdated and irreparable due to non-availability of spare parts and repair facilities resulting suspension of essential surgical and diagnostic procedures. The hospital warned the ministry that if the equipment was not replaced within a short period, all essential patient services would be effected badly.