Lyari General Hospital gets a chest pain unit

NICVD inaugurates seventh such unit in the city

KARACHI: The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), in collaboration with the Sindh government, established its seventh chest pain unit (CPU) in Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Institute of Cardiology at the Sindh Government Lyari General and Teaching Hospital, Karachi to facilitate patients with chest pain with easy access and free of charge services.

Health Secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho inaugurated the chest pain unit. He said that the unit will further improve the facilities available at the Lyari General Hospital to patients with critical heart conditions or chest pain.

An emergency ward, consultancy clinic and facility of echo-cardiography are available for patients at the unit.

Arrangements for vaccination in child emergency wards have also been made in this hospital, the health secretary said, adding that if parents get children vaccinated on time, they will remain safe from illnesses.



Addressing the inauguration ceremony, NICVD Executive Director Prof Nadeem Qamar stated that NICVD has proudly started operation of one more CPU now at the Lyari General Hospital to provide state-of-the-art cardiac treatment to the people of Lyari and its peripheries.

Sharing statistics, Qamar said that since the establishment of NICVD's first CPU facility in May last year till May 16 this year, 50,538 people have visited the CPUs, among whom 23,138 were cardiac patients. As many as 2,681 patients were diagnosed to have suffered a heart attack, which was managed successfully, he said.

Qamar said the rush at Karachi's hospitals has increased and more hospitals should be established. "We need to open more of such units in the next three to four years," he said.

He said that these units are designed to provide quality emergency care to heart attack patients and teams of all these units are diligently working to save lives round the clock.

He added that facilities of interventional cardiology, critical care and adult and paediatric cardiology will be available soon at this Lyari outreach unit.



He announced that in future more CPU will be established at different localities across Sindh.

NICVD is committed to providing free of charge and state-of-the-art cardiac treatment to the people of Sindh at their doorstep, he said, thanking the provincial government for providing endless support.

The NICVD had introduced a new era of heart healthcare with the launch of its first chest pain unit almost a year back. Till date, NICVD's chest pain units under flyovers at the Gulshan Chowrangi, Gulbai Flyover, Malir Halt, Qayyomabad Chowrangi and Nagan Chowrangi, and at a clinic near II Chundrigar Road have been serving people successfully and treating hundreds of patients on a daily basis.

This service is one-of-its-kind and is available 24/7 throughout the year.

Each unit is well-equipped and has the appropriate diagnostic testing facility to identify patients having a heart attack. They are also equipped to resuscitate patients who become unstable.

The units are designed to provide preliminary emergency care to heart attack patients. After providing initial treatment, the patient is shifted immediately to the tertiary care setup at NICVD's catheterisation lab.