KARACHI:Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Sunday inaugurated the 12th Chest Pain Unit (CPU) of National Institute of cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) beneath Manzil Pump flyover near Quaidabad and advised other provincial governments in the country to follow the footsteps of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in serving the society without any discrimination.
“NICVD is a flagship program of Pakistan People’s Party and its 14 chest pain units and 10 satellite centers are not only serving heart patients of entire Pakistan, but people from other provinces are also coming to Karachi and other parts of Sindh to avail quality cardiac treatment, which is being offered free of charge,” Shah said while speaking at the inauguration of 12th Chest Pain Unit of the NICVD here on Sunday.
Shah, who cut the ribbon to inaugurate the NICVD’s Chest Pain Unit at Manzil pump along with PPP MNA from the area Syed Agha Rafiullah and Minister for Katchi Abadies Murtaza Baloch, said NICVD was not only a cardiac care facility, but it had also evolved into a revolutionary health program under the leadership of Prof. Nadeem Qamar, who has converted a single hospital into a chain of 24 health facilities in entire province within a few years.
“The container inaugurated today is a complete cardiac care facility, and such containers have saved thousands of lives of in a short span of time in Karachi. People from other countries of world are closely monitoring this program and trying to replicate in in their congested cities”, he claimed.
The local government minister said as per the vision of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Sindh government was launching development projects in the province and claimed that by June 2020 at the end of current fiscal year, Sindh government would inaugurate 171 new development projects in Karachi alone.
Advising other provincial governments in the country to learn from the experience of NICVD and replicate the projects of Sindh government in the area of health, especially the Chest Pain Unit Program of NICVD, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah vowed to continue serving the people of Sindh, especially Karachi as per vision and guidance of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The Executive Director NICVD Prof. Nadeem Qamar said on the occasion that they were compelled to establish Chest Pain Units in different areas of Karachi every second week on the requests from people and their representatives from various city localities and added that the CPU program of the NICVD had emerged as the most successful program in the cardiac care area in the world.
“These 14 containers on the roads have saved over 7200 lives during last one and half years and at the moment while I’m talking to you, several patients are being examined and given first aid at this CPU”, Prof. Nadeem Qamar said adding that in cities like Karachi, NICVD’s CPUs were doing a great service to the people having chest pain and heart attacks.
He maintained that yesterday he received a call from Chief of Engro Energy Company which is working on Thar Coal, who told him that lives of several workers of the coal mining company were saved at the NICVD’s Satellite Center in Mithi and added that he was daily hearing praise for NICVD’s 10 Satellite Centers which are serving millions of people from Karachi to Sukkur.
NICVD officials said they had established 14 Chest Pain Units in Karachi during last two years, of which Lyari’s CPU was converted into a Satellite Center with facilities of Angiography and Angioplasty while one at the Gulbai Flyover was gutted due to fire when an oil tanker exploded near the cardiac unit a few months back. At the 12 CPUs in Karachi and two in the interior of Sindh are functioning round the clock.