KARACHI: The executive director of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) on Monday announ­ced to establish chest pain units (CPUs) in every district of Sindh and link them with the already functioning eight satellite centres of the NICVD in different cities of the province.

Prof Nadeem Qamar said at the inauguration of the first CPU of the NICVD in Ghotki district that the Sindh health department should cooperate with them in taking over cardiology units at civil and district hospitals in several cities of Sindh.

“We have decided to establish our chest pain units in each and every district of Sindh, which would be connected with our satellite centres that are already functioning in eight cities of the province. I would urge the Sindh government and the provincial health department to cooperate with us in taking over cardiology units of district hospitals in the province to transform them into CPUs.”

The NICVD is already running eight CPUs in Karachi that provide first-aid to a person in case of heart attack and shifts them to the main cardiac facility in a life-saving ambulance for further intervention, especially for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or angioplasty in emergency. The CPU established at Ghotki is the first such unit outside Karachi.

Accompanied by eminent cardiologist Prof Javed Akbar Sial and Sukkur NICVD in-charge Dr Mohammad Hashim, Prof Nadeem Qamar also inspected the non-functional cardiology unit at the Taluka Hospital Ghotki and announced that they would request the Sindh government to hand it over to the NICVD so that state-of-the-art cardiac care facilities could be provided to the residents of Ghotki and its adjoining areas.

He said the decision to establish the first chest pain unit outside Ghotki was taken after learning that on an average five to six patients were daily being brought to the Taluka Hospital Ghotki due to heart attacks. Their chest unit, which would work round the clock and would be connected to the NICVD Sukkur, would be helpful in saving hundreds of lives in the remote district, he added.

This CPU in Ghotki would be connected with the NICVD Sukkur through a state-of-the-art ambulance and after provision of first aid by a trained cardiologist, the patient would be shifted to Sukkur for the primary PCI or any other procedure required to save life, he said.

Talking to reporters, Prof Qamar announced that they were going to establish chest pain units in all districts of the province during the current fiscal year and urged the Sindh government and the health department to cooperate with them in taking over cardiology units of districts hospitals so that they could be transformed into mini cardiac-care units.

Deploring that young bread earners were dying due to cardiovascular diseases, especially heart attacks in Pakistan, he said satellite centres and chest pain units established by the NICVD were saving thousands of lives annually by providing best-available cardiac treatment to the people and added that they were now launching a preventive cardiology programme to prevent cardiac ailments in the country.

“We have hired one of the best cardiologists of the country to run our preventive cardiology programme and we hope that we would be able to reduce the ratio of cardiac ailments in our population by promoting preventive measures, He said and urged the print and electronic media to promote healthy lifestyle so that people could be prevented from having heart attacks and cardiac failures at early ages,” he said.

Taluka Hospital Ghotki Medical Superintendent Dr Fakir Hussain Shah praised the NICVD administration for establishing their chest pain unit at their health facility and urged the institute to take over their cardiology unit, which is lying vacant for the past several years due to lack of trained and qualified staff.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2019