Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital gets Cath Lab finally

By Mushtaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR: The long-awaited Cath Lab has been finally installed in the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital in Swat and is ready to be formally opened, according to officials of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had taken personal interest in the catheterisation laboratory (Cath Lab) in the tertiary care hospital of Saidu Sharif in his native Swat after learning that there was not a single such facility in any public sector hospital in the entire Malakand division.

The successive provincial governments, including the previous Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition government, ignored this important project as it needed Rs160 million.

There were reports that former Jamaat-i-Islami MPA from Swat Mohammad Amin had announced that he would arrange funds for Cath Lab in Swat if voted to power. However, his dream didn’t come true as his party once boycotted the election and the second time he lost to PTI’s Fazal Hakeem Khan.

Local people as well as some doctors brought the issue into the knowledge of Mahmood Khan. He then arranged funds for the project and personally followed it till its completion.

The chief minister is expected to formally inaugurate the Cath Lab facility after Eidul Fitr.

Before its formal opening, the cardiologists at the Saidu Teaching Hospital on May 7 undertook four procedures, three angiographies, and one angioplasty on test running.

It cost Rs76,000 and the doctors of the cardiology department donated the amount for procuring stents and other items needed in the procedures.

Of the three patients, two were advised open heart surgery while the third one was passed on with a stent to open his artery.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Malakand division with 9 million people is the most populous division.

Also, Malakand division utilised the Sehat Sahulat programme more than any other division in the province and the majority of patients were reportedly suffering from heart-related diseases.

In Malakand division, Swat was on top of the list of patients who received free services from the government scheme. According to officials, the heart patients were in the majority among patients who benefited from the Sehat Sahulat programme.

“Establishing Cath Lab in the government-run hospital is a big achievement of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and it will serve the heart patients of the entire Malakand division. Now the people should approach the chief minister to set up a cardiac surgery department in the Saidu Teaching Hospital and bring some qualified doctors here,” a member of the cardiology department in Swat told The News.

He said there are many qualified doctors who belong to Swat and other districts but were serving in other parts of the country. According to the doctors, running the Cath Lab smoothly will be another issue for the hospital administration and it should give incentives to the staff so they should own the facility.

They said the government should encourage an interventional cardiologist to join the cardiology department in Swat to take charge of the Cath Lab.

The doctors had in 2015 installed two private Cath Labs in Swat and reportedly earned millions of rupees as patients used to be referred to them from the whole of Malakand division.

One Cath Lab is owned by a group of three cardiologists of Saidu Teaching Hospital.

There were certain reasons behind the delay in commissioning the Cath Lab. The lack of funds was a major issue and then the newly constructed 500-bed hospital building where the machine was to be installed is not ready. The new building of the tertiary care hospital was also an old pending issue. According to the officials of Saidu Teaching Hospital, they again approached the chief minister and he luckily arranged funds for the remaining civil works and equipment of the new building.

“Some people unnecessarily make it an issue but honestly speaking, Swat is taking the burden of the regional districts in Malakand division. Patients are referred to us from all the districts including Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Malakand district, Buner, Shangla, and the three districts of Kohistan,” said a faculty member of the hospital. He said all serious patients of the coronavirus used to be sent to them in Swat. “The commissioner Malakand division after noticing that all critical patients are being referred to Swat, he ordered shifting of all the ventilators of district headquarters hospitals in Malakand to Swat where the number of patients had risen to 900-plus,” he added.