Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: The patient load on the capital’s only dedicated public sector cardiac centre has doubled in the last year.
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) cardiac centre has no dedicated outpatient department (OPD) or ward, and faces an acute shortage of paramedics and nursing staff as there are only 45 nurses to look after the 199-bed facility. The centre was inaugurated in April 2015 after many delays and controversies. The centre caters to Islamabad and adjoining areas and was inaugurated in 2006 by former Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz. It was supposed to be completed by 2008, but eventually took eight years to open. Since then, almost 50,000 heart patients have been treated every year, however, patient load has hit almost 40,000 in less than six months of the current calendar year, and is estimated to go well beyond 80,000 by the end of the year.
“We are planning to build a dedicated OPD and an emergency block to meet the ever-increasing patient load,” Cardiac Centre Chairman Dr Akhtar Bandeshah told The Express Tribune. He said a dedicated OPD ward was not constructed, which he admitted had become a cause of problems. He stressed shortage of staff was the main problem and recruitment should be expedited.
He said postgraduate students were being trained at the centre and in future they would serve as cardiologists within Pakistan and elsewhere. He said the centre has a modern electrophysiology lab, angiography equipment, nuclear lab, non-invasive cardiac diagnostic lab, two modern operation theatres with an intensive care unit (ICU), CCU, and surgical wards, besides two cardiology and cardiac surgery wards in addition to administration and services blocks.
The facility also has an auditorium, e-library, radiology and pathology facilities to meet requirements as a teaching hospital.
The centre has a 15 bed private ward as well. “We are planning to develop it as modern cardiac transplant centre,” Dr Bandeshah vowed. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) Vice-Chancellor Dr Javed Akram said that cardiovascular disease was rising among younger people, aged 35 to 45 years.
“Every four-and-a-half seconds, a Pakistani loses life due to cardiovascular diseases, and every second person in Pakistan suffers from hypertension. In such an alarming situation, the cardiac centre is receiving the increasing number of cardiac patients,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2016.
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