MULTAN: A summary for hiring staff for new emergency block and newly constructed Intensive Care Unit Usman Block of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology (CPEIC) will be sent to the chief minister for approval.

It was stated by CPEIC Chief Executive Dr Rana Altaf while talking to Dawn here on Wednesday.

He said the decision was made in a meeting of the board of governors of the institute presided over by Health Special Secretary Ijaz Munir a couple of days back.

“There are 81 allocated posts of consultant staff, out of which 33 are vacant while nine posts of head nurses out of 15 and 11 posts of other officers out of 37 are vacant,” Mr Altaf said, adding that in non-gazetted staff, 27 posts out of 200 work-charged nurses, 20 out of 120 paramedics and 23 out of 440 other staff posts were vacant.

He said the institute provided services to about 50 million people of south Punjab, adjacent areas of Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said annually more than 1,800 surgical procedures, 6,000 angiographies, 1,600 angioplasties and permanent peacemaker insertions, 220,000 echocardiographies, 3,000 exercise tolerance tests and more than 85,500 other lab tests were being performed at the institute annually while 100,000 patients visited its emergency department and 200,000 outpatient wards and specialised clinics.

Mr Altaf said 24-bed ICU Usman Block had been constructed with the help of a donor who not only provided funds for construction but also beds, air-conditioning system and the central gas supply system.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2014