Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Law and Environment Murtaza Wahab on Thursday inaugurated the 11th Chest Pain Unit of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in the Musa Lane area of Lyari and urged the NICVD administration to open one such chest pain unit in the central prison so that lives of prisoners could be saved and others could be provided cardiac health facilities if required. “Instead of using containers for politics and blocking roads, the Pakistan Peoples Party is using these containers for serving ailing humanity and inauguration of 11th Chest Pain Unit of Karachi and 13th in Sindh is an excellent example of this service. I would urge the NICVD administration to also think about establishing one such chest pain unit in the central prison Karachi to facilitate prisoners and save lives of those having heart attacks,” Wahab said while speaking at the inauguration of the 11th CPU of the NICVD. Executive Director NICVD Prof Nadeem Qamar, chief operating officer of the institute, Azra Maqsood, Malik Hamidullah, Haider Awan and other officials of the NICVD were also present, while public representatives of the area as well as a large number of PPP workers attended the ceremony and chanted slogans of their party. Wahab claimed that the number of prisoners, especially under trial prisoners, was on the rise in jails where thousands of UTPs had been languishing without convictions for years. In order to provide them cardiac-care facilities, the NICVD is requested to establish one such unit initially at the Central Prison Karachi. He vowed that when voted to power again, the PPP would establish such chest pain units all over Pakistan to provide state-of-the-art cardiac care facilities to the people. Paying rich tribute to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the provincial adviser said that when the NICVD was handed over to Sindh government in 2011 through the 18th amendment, it was in an extremely precarious condition, but the Bilawal took personal interest in its upgradation, and after revamping the main NICVD in Karachi, he supervised establishment of its satellite centres across Sindh. He said now people from across Pakistan, including Gilgit and Kashmir, were coming to Sindh to avail free of charge, quality cardiac care at the NICVD centres. “The NICVD and satellite centres as well as chest pain units are providing free of charge, quality cardiac care services 24 hours a day without any holiday. Is there any other institution which is providing such quality health services anywhere in Pakistan?” he questioned and claimed that instead of making tall and hollow claims, the PPP government served the masses, especially in the area of healthcare. Later, talking to newsmen, Wahab said the Pakistan Peoples Party did not believe in blocking roads and causing inconvenience to general public. She added that if interests of the people would be harmed, the law would take its own course. Executive Director JPMC Prof Nadeem Qamar, in his opening remarks, termed the establishment of the 11th Chest Pain Unit in the Musa Lane area as another gift for the people of Lyari, saying this CPU was linked with the NICVD’s Satellite Centre at the Lyari General Hospital where all cardiac care facilities, including angiography and angioplasty, were available. “We are expanding the network of these chest pain units in entire Karachi and the whole Sindh province because these units have saved thousands of lives during the last two years. So far, 7,000 people who were having acute heart attacks were brought to these CPUs whose lives were saved by doctors and paramedics at these units. “Overall, around three hundred thousand patients have been seen in these containers in Karachi and other cities of Sindh,” Prof Qamar said. He maintained that the NICVD was likely to treat 2.5 million patients by the end of 2019, and added that not a single penny was charged from these patients against all the modern cardiac care facilities, including cardiac interventions, surgeries, implants and provision of medicines worth millions of rupees. “No such system of cardiac healthcare exists anywhere in the world which is treating such a large number of patients and providing them top of the line cardiac care services without demoing even a single penny,” he claimed and urged the media to promote the services of the NICVD so that a large number of people could avail quality health services. Source: The News International (November 15, 2019)