KARACHI:The closure of Out Patient Department (OPD) services in the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) for the past 15 days has added to the worries of patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases in the city.
Score of people in the Karachi are facing hardships as they are unable to get their routine checkups from NICVD and KIHD since two weeks. Presently, only emergency services are operational in these two major cardiac care health facilities of the city while OPDs have been closed since March 20 to stop the assembly of people to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The suspension of OPD services is creating a grave inconvenience for patients living with heart problems as they are unable to get their routine checkups done. The cardiologists are also working under pressure as in the absence of physical examination of patients seeking consultation on phone, a wrong diagnose can lead them to trouble.
An official at KIHD told PPI that the Sindh government and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) needed to come up with some better plan. He said the problems of the general public should not be overlooked while fighting the spread of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Chief Operating Officer, NICVD, Azra Maqsood, while talking to PPI, said all Chest Pain Units (CPUs) running the OPDs to facilitate cardiovascular patients and management had only shut down the main facility to control spread of Coronavirus.