Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa orders establishment of cardiac labs at divisional headquarters

Officials hope that it will help lower the burden on specialized health centres in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: After coming under fire over the slow pace of work on projects, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) health department has directed to speed up work on Peshawar’s Institute of Cardiology (PIC), completing it by June, and to set up Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at the divisional headquarters.

At the moment, three cardiology units are operating in the provincial, offering heart patients with treatment facilities in the provincial capital while the government is mulling plans for building units in Mardan, Swat and Kohat. Officials dealing with the issue stated that there was dire need of facilitating people at the divisional headquarters level since hospitals there lacked specialized facilities.

In absence of specialized heart units, officials said that patients, specifically patients hailing from the southern parts of the province, head to the three tertiary care hospitals in the provincial capital — putting a taxing load on the overstretched facilities there. The government, though, hopes to lower that burden by setting up heart facilities at the divisional headquarters apart from improving response times to such health issues.

The provincial cabinet had taken up the matter in September 2017 where health officials told ministers that one cardiac catheterization laboratory was required in each administrative division of the province.

The department further told the government that to set up labs in Swat, Mardan, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Kohat divisions would require Rs1 billion (Rs250million for each facility), read official documents, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.

The documents stated that since Peshawar and the Hazara divisions already had fully functional and well-equipped labs, labs for other parts of the province should be included in the annual development programme for the next fiscal year, 2018-19.

Health officials further said that most of the divisional headquarter hospitals have been declared Medical Teaching Institutions (MTIs) since they continue to treat patients apart from teaching students.

“This should have been done earlier [setting up of cardiac units at district headquarters hospitals],” a senior health official said, adding, “Nevertheless, even if we do it now, it should be done on war footing since there a lot of people with cardiac problems and 99 per cent of them [patients] travel all the way to the provincial capital [for treatment].”

The official said that by building units in a district will not only help “lower the burden on Peshawar but will offer services to patients at their doorstep.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2018.