Teaching hospitals to make cardiology units fully functional: Secretary Health

Lahore: Secretary Health Jawad Rafiq Malik has sought recommendations from the teaching hospitals especially of Lahore regarding the requirements of staff, medical equipment, infrastructure and funds to make cardiology units of the said hospital fully functional.

He said this while addressing a meeting of senior cardiologists of teaching hospitals to evolve a strategy for making cardiology units fully functional.

DG Health Dr. Zahid Pervaiz, Chief Executive PIC Prof. Bilal Zakariya Khan, Prof. Zubair of Jinnah Hospital, Prof. Sheharyar of Gulab Devi Hospital, Prof. Saqib Shafi of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Associate Prof. Dr. Balqees of Mayo Hospital and Associate Professors of Multan Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology and Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore attended the meeting.

It was decided that Prof. Bilal Zakariya Khan, as focal person, would submit a consolidated report regarding the recommendations collected from different teaching hospitals about the requirements of doctors, medical equipment, infrastructure and expenditures. For this purpose, a meeting will be held on June 17 in the Committee Room of PIC in which all heads of cardiology departments would come up with the requirements of their respective hospitals.

Gulab Devi Hospital has also been taken on board as the cardiac department of the hospital is providing commendable services to the patients. He said that cardiac patients would be referred from PIC and other teaching hospitals to Gulab Devi Hospital for surgery and other procedure. For this purpose, government would pay expenditures to the hospital. He said that in this connection, a formal contract would be finalized between the Health Department and Gulab Devi Hospital.

He said that the main objective of taking all these steps is to resolve the difficulties of cardiac patients and to enhance treatment facilities. The experts were of the view that health education is essential to control the diseases. They proposed that special attention should be paid to the preventive cardiology.