KARACHI: The Executive Director of National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) Prof. Nadeem Qamar on Monday inaugurated NICVD’s 9th Satellite Center of the cardiac health facility at Lyari General Hospital and vowed to establish another cardiac hospital in Karachi to cater to the growing needs of heart patients in the Metropolis.
“Today we have inaugurated 9th Satellite Center of NICVD at Lyari General Hospital where all types of cardiac-care facilities including Primary PCI or angioplasty in case of heart attack is available. From now onwards, residents of Lyari would not have to go to the main NICVD in case of heart attacks as they would be treated near to their abodes in Lyari”, Prof. Nadeem Qamar said while talking to newsmen after the inaugurating NICVD’s Lyari Satellite Center at LGH.
Accompanied by eminent cardiologist Prof. Javed Akbar Sial, Administrator of the NICVD Lyari Incharge Malik Nasarullah, Head of Pharmacy Services NICVD Jibran Bin Yousuf and Medical Superintendent of the Lyari General Hospital Dr. Anwar Pallari, Prof. Nadeem Qamar also inspected various sections as well as the newly-installed Cath machine at the health facility and assured the visiting patients that from now onward they would not have to visit the main NICVD for any heart related intervention as all the facilities would be available at NICVD Lyari Center.
Prof. Nadeem Qamar maintained that except for the bypass surgeries for the time being, all the cardiac-care services including Angiography and Angioplasty, Primary PCI, all types of heart implants, Echocardiography (ECHO), X-ray, labs and OPDs for both adults and children would be available at the NICVD’s Lyari Satellite Center and added that in future if they are managed to get some bigger and spacious building, they could even think of starting heart surgeries in Lyari.
“And we also need to establish another major cardiac hospital in Karachi to cater to heart-health needs of people as at the moment, we are overflowing with patients at main NICVD and cannot treat all of them. This new facility could either be the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) in Azizabad or could be established at any other hospital building, which has been completed by the Sindh government but still lying vacant”, Prof. Nadeem Qamar observed.
He maintained that NICVD Lyari Satellite Center would be linked with the Chest Pain Units (CPUs) in its vicinity and in case main NICVD’s emergency is overburdened with the patients, some of the heart attack patients could be shifted to the Lyari General Hospital’s Satellite Center for Primary PCI or angioplasty after heart attack.
“By the end of November this year, we are also going to establish five or six more Chest Pain Units, link them with main NICVD and our Satellite Center in Lyari to save as much lives after heart attacks as possible”, he said and added that ‘time is muscle’ after heart attacks and sooner a patient lands at a proper cardiac facility after heart attack, better are his or her chances of survival.
Responding to queries regarding Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD) program, Prof. Nadeem Qamar said they performed five LVAD transplants last year, of which two patients survived and added that due to absence of trained staff for post-operative care of the LVAD transplant patients, they have temporarily suspended the program.
“Currently, we are in the process of getting our staff trained to provide proper care of the patients after LVAD transplants and as soon as our staff is fully trained, we would restart this program”, Prof. Qamar assured adding that at the moment, 95 percent of the all the cardiac-care treatment facilities in world were available at the NICVD and its network of hospitals.
Regarding availability of paediatric cardiology services, he said trained and qualified surgeons from Canada and local private hospitals have joined NICVD while two more surgeons have locally been trained to perform paediatric surgeries and added that they are in process of having a complete paediatric cardiology complex at NICVD to deal with cardiac-health issues of infants and children.
