PIMS Cardiac Centre gets 14-bed CCU

Hospital admin cites sluggish funds release as major hindrance to efficient healthcare.

ISLAMABAD:

After a year’s wait, the 14-bed coronary care unit (CCU) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences’ (Pims) Cardiac Centre was inaugurated on Tuesday.

The unit was inaugurated by Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Secretary Fareedullah Khan and Member National Assembly from Islamabad Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.

The CCU is part of the Pims Cardiac Centre which was completed at a cost of Rs1.2 billion and inaugurated last December after a delay of six years.

Dr Shahid Nawaz, head of the cardiac centre, said with the addition of the new unit, the Cardiac Centre now has 117 beds.

“A number of cardiac patients are always on the waiting list to be admitted to the CCU. Hopefully this will help serve them better,” Nawaz said.

While highlighting the challenges in effectively running the centre, he said there is a shortage of human resources and surgical equipment. “We requested CADD to sanction posts and provide funds for procuring the necessary equipment.”

He said when fully operational, the Cardiac Centre is expected to perform 1,000 angiographies, 500 angioplasties and valvuloplasties, and 400 cardiac surgical procedures annually.

When Chaudhry inquired about the nonfunctional ventilators, acting Pims chief Professor Mehmood Jamal informed him that 40 ventilators are functional at the moment while 14 are nonfunctional.

He said the purchase order for the ventilators was placed a few months ago but so far there has been no response.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2013.