ISLAMABAD, April 9: The capital city is likely to have its first world class cardiac centre at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) by the end of June, Dawn has learnt.
Work on the Rs1.2 billion cardiac centre was inaugurated in March 2006 by the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the project was to be completed in 18 months. However, due to paucity of funds the centre could not be made functional even after five years though its four-storey building has been constructed.
In his inaugural speech, the former prime minister had said: “No fully-equipped cardiac centre is available in the twin cities except for the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) in Rawalpindi.” He had expressed the hope that after completion the centre would ease the suffering of heart patients.
The 100-bed cardiac centre was to be equipped with modern gadgets, including thallium scan (to examine blood supply to the heart muscles), MRI, angiography, bypass operation and training facilities.
Pims’ cardiac department is already facing difficulties in dealing with the patient load.
Currently, the cardiac unit has only 14 beds in its critical care unit and 31 in the wards. According to a senior physician, the facility is too small to manage the load of patients. He said in routine they checked around 200 patients at the outpatient department (OPD) besides conducting eight to 10 procedures on a daily basis.
“AFIC is mainly meant for the armed forces personnel and their retired employees. The establishment of the cardiac centre at Pims will help us resolve cardiac problems faced by the civilian population of the twin cities,” said the physician.
The executive director of Pims, Prof Mehmood Jamal, told Dawn on Friday that Secretary Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Imtiaz Inayat Elahi had directed the hospital administration to complete the project by June.
“We have placed a request with CADD to get Rs544 million released from the Finance Division so that the much-needed equipment for the cardiac centre can be purchased.”
Prof Jamal said they were hopeful about getting the amount released, since the beneficiaries of the project were the general public. He said under the project the cardiac centre would have a services block, main block, cardiac wards (the old cafeteria area will also be incorporated into it) and a coronary care unit (CCU).
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is already operative at the new building. “What we are left with is that the CCU has to be renovated and for this PWD has been released funds,” he added.
After the completion of the remaining work at the building, the cardiac department of Pims will be shifted to the new facility by June this year, he added.