After completion of preliminary preparations, the Children’s Heart Hospital and Research Institute is now in the pipeline, Pakistan Today has learnt. It will be Pakistan’s first ever heart hospital for children. It will be the result of the endeavours of a team of philanthropists and experts who, without depending on government’s assistant, have taken up the good cause. The hospital will provide cure to children born with heart defects. The Children’s Heart Hospital and Research Institute promises hope to children with curable heart conditions including congenital heart diseases.
The project is being run by some of the finest specialised heart doctors in the country. Their mission is to build a state-of-the-art trust hospital and research centre exclusively for the children. They include Prof Masood Sadiq, head of Children’s Hospital Lahore’s Paediatric Cardiology, Prof Shakeel Qureshi, Head of Service of Paediatric Cardiology, Guy’s and St Thomas (NHS Foundation Trust), Dr Asim Khan, assistant professor, paediatric cardiac surgeon at Children’s Hospital, Dr S Salman A Shah, assistant professor, paediatric cardiac surgeon at Children’s Hospital, Dr Najam Hayder, assistant professor, paediatric cardiologist at Children’s Hospital, Dr Asif-Ur-Rehman, assistant professor, paediatric cardiologist at Punjab Institute of Cardiology and Farhan Ahmad, a renowned businessman.
The congenital heart disease (CHD) is referred to as hearts having structural defects from birth. It can involve the interior walls of the heart, the valves inside the heart, the arteries and veins that carry blood to the heart or out to the body. The CHD can range from simple defects with no symptoms to complex defects.
Surprisingly, the ratio of children with CHD in Pakistan is alarming as approximately 1 out of every 100 children suffers from it. The Children’s Hospital Lahore conducts over 400 surgeries every year and currently there are 3,000 children awaiting their turn. It usually takes about 8 years for an infant to get operated for this disease since the day it is registered.
Hence people with sound financial resources prefer to travel to India or to the West for a surgery and those with meagre income are left with no options but to wait for years to get routine treatment. So far more than 1,400 people have joined The Children’s Heart Hospital and Research Institute Facebook group and donations are pouring in from abroad.
Currently the project includes a hospital with 70-75 beds. 25 beds in the ICU, 20 beds in CICU, 5 beds in CICU, 20 floor beds, 2 Operating Rooms, 1 Angiography Suite, 2 Echo Suites, 10-20 Consultation offices. Other than that the plan is to establish Radiology facilities, CT scanner, Central Supply (CSSD), Pharmacy, Central hospital laboratory, Cafeteria and an Institute for teaching and training of medical and paramedical staff.
The aim of the Children’s Heart Hospital and Research Institute is to build a non-profit (Trust Hospital) to serve the needy and underprivileged families and to function as a tertiary referral centre for children from other institutions, cities, provinces and even neighbouring countries.
The Childrens Heart Hospital and Research Institute plans to operate 1500 children every year lowering down waiting times.
The readers, for further details and donations, can log on to Facebook and search for The Children’s Heart Hospital and Research Institute.
The Children’s Heart Hospital & Research Institute
