The crises-hit masses of the province find little relief at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), a federal government-run cardiac centre, as its administration could not complete various mega projects within time frame, which has forced a large number of deserving patients to contact private hospitals for expensive tests due to non-availability of machines at NICVD.
The Ministry of Health had approved funds for the mega projects in the Sindh's highly dependable cardiac centre to facilitate poverty-stricken masses, in December 2005, and had allowed the administration to procure expensive machines, but the projects could not be completed even after passing three-year timeframe due to snail-paced process and embezzlement of government funds, sources told Business Recorder on Sunday.
The sources said the federal government approved funds for the mega projects of NICVD include the procurement of Coronary Angiography machines, CT Coronary Angiography machine, three power generators of 1 MW, two chillers of 750 tons and centralised air-conditioning of the institute to provide state of the art facilities to the masses.
The mega projects could not be completed due to lack of interest of the administration and appointment of non-technical officials for the completion of the projects, the sources added.
The sources estimated only one CT Coronary Angiography test at private hospital costs Rs 40,000 to a patient and the facilities of the test are available at only two private hospitals National Medical Centre (NMC) and Advance Radiology Centre (ARC) of the city, which is beyond the reach of common man. They said daily five patients and annually 1800 patients were recommended in both private cardiac centre for test, but half of them returned to their homes without treatment due to costly tests.
"Like this the province's largest cardiac centre has only four Coronary Angiography machines and two among them had developed faults and stopped functioning and whole institute utilised services of two machines for treatment of 250 patients in a day," the sources said, adding that the administration referred most of the patients to NMC and ARC for tests, which cost Rs 30,000 a patient, while NICVD was conducting test for private patient at Rs 20,000 and for semi-private Rs 15,000 a patient.
The source said both machines were imported and arrived at the institute in June 2007, but after completion of service tenure of the then Executive Director Professor Dr Azhar Farooqui, the machines could not be installed.
"Initially the imported expensive machinery was placed in the corridors for six months and then shifted to a ward for one year due to non-availability of electricity and incomplete sewerage work," they added.
They said the administration imported expensive machinery in June 2007, but could not operationalize it due to appointment of non-technical staff for the project. The administration of the then period had taken the services of two retired MBBS doctors from Army Medical Core (AMC) namely Colonel Dr Tariq-uz-Zafar (Retd) as Project Director and Lieutenant Colonel Shafi Muhammad (Retd) as a Deputy Project Director on high salaries, while they could not perform their duties, which caused unnecessary delay in the completion of much awaited federal government projects, they added.
The sources said the current administration of NICVD under Acting Executive Director Dr Khan Shah Zaman had washed out all official records including PC-I of the mega project to hide its poor performance. Recently, Federal Secretary Health Professor Dr Khushnood Ahmed Lashari visited the cardiac centre to review the pace of work and demanded official records of the project, but the administration could not provide him records and said the official records were misplaced by project directors, they added.
The sources said there was no official records and PC-I of the mega project of NICVD in hands of both the Ministry of Health and administration of the hospital, while the federal secretary health was told the project would be completed in June 2009. "The administration could not install power generators due to non-provision of gas connection and there is a serious threat that the warranty of the machines could be expired if not installed," they said.
Acting Executive Director of NICVD, Professor Dr Khan Shah Zaman, when contacted, asked this reporter to leave the office without offering any comments on the issue.
He said the administration of the institute had already conveyed about the status of the project to the Ministry of Health and the media reserve no right to investigate into the internal affairs of the ministry and the hospital.