HYDERABAD: The euphoria witnessed in the past few months over planned opening of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) satellite centre at Sindh government’s Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) in Hyderabad seems to have subsided as the institute’s management could not start bypass surgeries there despite passage of more than a year.

At present, cardiac patients from Hyderabad and the adjoining districts — Tando Allahyar, Jamshoro, Matiari, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Sanghar — have to travel to Karachi or Tando Mohammad Khan where cardiac surgeries are performed.

With the NICVD becoming a federal entity again by virtue of the apex court’s January 16 verdict, situation has changed. A new memorandum of understanding (MoU) may have to be signed by the NICVD and Sindh government. In the meantime, the Sindh Assembly has also adopted ‘The Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Bill 2018 (SICVD)’.

The SICVD may now deal with the NICVD and workout details of services to be provided to patients at the eight satellite centres set up so far in different areas of Sindh by the NICVD.

To run such a centre at the LUH, the NICVD had signed an MoU with the provincial health department in 2017 to “significantly strengthen cardiac care services”. Angiography test and angioplasty procedure are being done at this centre. LUH doctors also attend to patients in the OPD (outpatient department) and handle emergency cases separately.

Notwithstanding the MoU, a dual system exists under one roof.

In recent months, the NICVD had been asking the LUH administration to hand over control of the hospital’s cardiology building to it but the latter insists that this can be done only after such a notification is issued by the provincial government arguing that the handover involves transfer of assets worth around Rs2bn.

Sources at the hospital said: “We know NICVD doctors will not perform cardiac surgeries even if we hand over our building to them.

Outgoing LUH medical superintendent Dr Wahab Wadhu, in his July 12 communication to the health secretary, had stated: “NICVD authorities are demanding possession of [the] entire building which consists of cardiology and cardiac surgery ward. NICVD authorities informed [us] they will run cardiology whereas cardiac surgeries will be done at Tando Mohammad Khan.”

Dr Wadhu apprehended that if cardiac surgery [at LUH) was stopped, people of Hyderabad would not be able to avail this facility despite availability of experienced faculty. The expensive equipment available here would also get rusted, he argued.

According to the MS, former health minister [Sikandar Mandhro] had submitted a note for the chief minister on Feb 16, 2018 seeking the latter’s advice because the minister was not the competent authority to hand over the hospital to NICVD.

A couple of months back, incumbent Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal chaired a meeting of the stakeholders where the LUH management pleaded its case and health secretary produced Dr Mandhro’s note.

Another stakeholder, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) also expressed its reservations. Its Vice Chancellor Dr Bikha Ram and faculty said: “Our undergraduate and postgraduate students are not allowed by the NICVD into its system, like cath lab. This inaccessibility is affecting their education; how can they learn cardiac procedures. We were told to sign a separate MoU with NICVD but since then no progress has been made.”

At present, a cardiac patient is first attended by LUH cardiologists, who may call NICVD staff if patient needs angiography test. According to sources, after diagnosis NICVD doctors perform angioplasty in less critical cases and rest are referred to Karachi – a point NICVD executive director Dr Nadeem Qamar strongly disputes.

He says: “We are not given the entire building at LUH and the equipment to handle cardiac care services as was earlier decided. Both LUH and LUMHS managements insist on running their respective services on their own. That is why we are having a dual system at the LUH.

He says NICVD has its own standards of services. “We have not been provided the space we need; now we plan to start cardiac services, including surgeries, at the Qasimabad Taluka Hospital, where Sindh government is raising a building enabling us to make it an independent unit for NICVD,” he says.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2019