NICVD expansion plan launched - CM accuses centre of interfering in health & educational sectors

By Our Staff reporter 

Karachi: Terming recent hike in prices of medicines `injustice to poor people’, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has accused the federal government of interfering in education and health sectors of the province.

“Though after passage of the 18th constitutional amendment, fixing prices of medicines fall under the domain of Sindh government, federal government continues to exercise such powers at the cost of the poor,” he lamented.

He was speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of outpatient facility expansion of National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) on the health facility’s premises. The project, costing Rs6 billion, is expected to be completed by July 2019.

He deplored that although both the health and education are provincial subjects after the passage of 18th constitutional amendment, the federal government was adamant that it should exercise powers of provincial government.

The CM said that after the 18th amendment the NICVD and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) had been devolved to the Sindh government.

Lauding the services being rendered by NICVD, chief minister said that he was satisfied when the hospital’s chief executive, Dr Nadeem Qamar, disclosed in his presentation that that he had brought the patients’ waiting list to almost nil.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Qamar said that there were 11 echo machines where 250 tests were being conducted daily. Under its primary angioplasty programme, the NICVD handled 2,634 cases from May 18 to date, while 1,300 surgeries were performed in the health facility last month.

NICVD’s chief operating officer Azra Maqsood said beds facility at the institution will be doubled after completion of the project.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended, among others, by provincial Secretary Health Dr Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo, Malik Hameedullah and Trustees of NICVD Welfare Trust.