Cardiac patients in Sargodha left in lurch

Doctors on night duty are also not present to attend emergency cases.

SARGODHA: Patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases in Sargodha are facing hardship due to the absence of treatment facilities in government-run hospitals, especially District Headquarter Hospital, Sargodha.

These patients, who suffer from a spectrum of diseases caused by cardiac complications, are currently being treated by medicines due to a lack of required facilities in public hospitals of the city.

The situation has irked the residents of the city as they are forced to pay more money for the treatment at private health centres. They complained that private hospitals are charging higher rates from the patients for treatments like angiography and angioplasty which are unaffordable for a common man.

Ghulam Ali, a resident of City Road, said “Facilities relating to heart diseases are not available at public hospitals in the city which has a population of over two million.” He added, “Treatment available at private hospitals is out of the reach of common man.”

He maintained private hospitals are charging Rs180,000 to Rs250,000 from a patient for angioplasty while medical facilities like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is also not available in government-run hospitals.



He pointed out patients with serious condition from four districts of the divison are often referred to Faisalabad or Lahore due to lack of proper medical equipments in the hospitals.

Rai Ahmed Noor, a resident of Farooq Colony, said the government should provide medical equipments at government hospitals of Sargodha to save the lives of the people.

He said, “Providing health facilities to the people is the responsibility of the government.”

Another resident Ahmed Nawaz Dhudi from Thatha Hakiman observed that the ratio of cardiovascular diseases has also increased in rural areas of the district, adding no facility regarding such diseases is being provided at rural health centres in Sargodha.

He pointed out doctors are not available at rural health centres during night shift to provide treatment to patients in emergency situation.

Meanwhile, Sargodha Medical Collge Cardiology Department Head Dr Shehzad Aslam told APP that the number of patients suffering from heart disease has increased manifold in the country, adding that a cardiology department should be established at divisional level to provide best medical care to the people at their door step.

He added the SMC was established in 2006, but the college lacked its own teaching hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2017.