Mayor Karachi agrees to relinquish control of KIHD: Murtaza Wahab

KARACHI: Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Environment, Murtaza Wahab, recently inaugurated the 13th Chest Pain Unit (CPU) of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) beneath the Gizri Flyover in Karachi. He said that Karachi is going to have another complete hospital for cardiovascular diseases shortly after Mayor Karachi, Waseem Akhtar, agrees to hand over the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) to the Sindh government for making it a 'Satellite Center' of the NICVD.

"I have a piece of good news for the people of Karachi that today at the Board of Governors meeting of the NICVD, Mayor Karachi, Waseem Akhtar, has finally agreed to hand over the KIHD to the Sindh government for its conversion into one of the satellite centers of the NICVD. This step would help us in the provision of quality cardiac health facilities to the people of districts central, Malir and East, and nearby areas,” said Murtaza Wahab while speaking at the inauguration of 13th CPU of the NICVD in Karachi as the Chief Guest.

The ceremony was also addressed by the Executive Director of NICVD, Prof Nadeem Qamar, while the in-charge of the NICVD emergency services, Prof Munawar Khursheed, as well as the local leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party and a large number of PPP workers were also present on occasion.

Murtaza Wahab maintained that Karachi is going to have two Satellite Centers of the NICVD or complete cardiac hospitals in the coming months as the Chest Pain Unit of the NICVD in Lyari has already been upgraded. Angiography and Primary PCI services would be started in Lyari shortly.

“A soft opening of Lyari’s Satellite Center would be performed soon with the start of Angiography and Primary PCI services while its inauguration would be carried out by the PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in the coming days,” said Murtaza Wahab, adding that these CPUs and Satellite Centers were gifts for the people of Karachi and other cities of Sindh from the Pakistan People’s Party government.

"Those who are critics of the 18th Constitutional Amendment should come to the Sindh province and see how the PPP government revolutionized the health sector in the province. From one cardiac hospital in Karachi in 2011, we converted it into a complete network of cardiac-care facilities, spread throughout the Sindh province where now open-heart surgeries were being performed in small towns like Tando Muhammad Khan. People from all over Pakistan can now seek quality healthcare there,” he maintained.

The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has started conducting raids not only in Karachi but also in Hyderabad to curb the use of plastic bags as the ban on polythene bags is imposed in the province. He urged the media to point out any violations so that action could be taken against the violators.

Responding to another query, he urged the Prime Minister, Imran Khan, to take a U-turn on the prices of medicine and cancel the increase in their prices so that people could afford them easily for treatment. He accused the Federal Government of its failure to import essential medicines and drugs, including the Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV), which was resulting in a serious health crisis. Many deaths have been reported due to the unavailability of these essential drugs.

Executive Director, NICVD, Prof Nadeem Qamar, said that due to the success of the Chest Pain Unit (CPU) program of the NICVD, they were under tremendous pressure from the people from different areas of Karachi and other cities of Sindh to set up these CPUs in their area so that lives could be saved in the case of heart attacks.

“This is the 13th CPU in Karachi and Sindh. This month, we are going to establish two more CPUs in Karachi. In the coming few months, we are going to establish five more Chest Pain Units across the city to facilitate the masses”, said Prof Qamar, adding that all of Karachi would be linked to the main NICVD through these CPUs and Satellite Centers so that precious human lives could be saved.”

Terming these CPUs as a gift from the Sindh government to the people of Karachi which saved more than 6816 lives and attended around three hundred thousand people during last one and half years, Prof Qamar said that the establishment of these facilities was not possible without the financial and material support of the Sindh government. Soon Karachi would have two more Satellite Centers of the NICVD, which would be complete cardiac hospitals in all respects, he added.