CM announces home dialysis machines, free heart transplants in Punjab

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Saturday announced a new initiative to provide home dialysis machines in Punjab and pledged to make heart transplant procedures completely free for deserving patients at the newly established Maryam Nawaz Heart Transplant Centre. Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology and the heart transplant centre, she said the government's foremost responsibility was to take healthcare and other essential services to people's doorsteps. 'Money, wealth, honour and authority may be attained, but the opportunity to serve is bestowed upon only a few,' she said, urging ministers, bureaucrats, doctors and other officials to treat their responsibilities as a trust. The chief minister said she considered a day wasted if she failed to take a decision or initiative for public service. She said the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology (PIC) in Lahore, established by PML-N President Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, was serving patients from Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the growing incidence of heart disease had made it difficult for a single public hospital to meet the demand. Ms Maryam said the newly established Jinnah Institute of Cardiology had now become fully functional and the first angiography had already been performed there. She said Pakistan's first dedicated heart transplant centre had also been established at the facility. Heart transplants, which could cost around $50,000, would be provided free of charge. She added that the use of Chinese technology could bring the cost down to around $10,000, allowing more patients to benefit from the facility. The institute has six catheterisation laboratories, five operation theatres, a heart-lung machine, a hybrid cath lab, Tesla MRI and a 640-slice CT scanner. AI technology has also been integrated into the cath labs, while a state-of-the-art electrophysiology department and zero-infection technology have been introduced. The chief minister praised Dr Hasnat Khan for returning from England to serve patients in Pakistan and said Pakistani doctors had demonstrated their capabilities internationally. She said Punjab's public hospitals treated around 100 million people last year, with medicines, surgeries and other procedures provided free of cost. Medicines were also being delivered to patients' homes, she added. However, she acknowledged serious weaknesses in the system, including theft of medicines and injections, demands for money by some staff and deliberate malfunctioning of equipment through collusion. Ms Maryam said the government had made significant progress in cardiac care. Around 14,600 of the 15,000 children who had been waiting for heart surgeries two-and-a-half years ago had now undergone operations. She said 2,460 organ transplants had also been performed in Punjab. She said cath labs had been established in 20 districts, while a stroke programme was being implemented at the district level. A 1,000-bed cancer hospital, described as Pakistan's largest, was also under construction. The chief minister said air ambulance services had reduced the time taken to transport critically ill patients during the 'golden hour'. She added that Punjab's Clinic on Wheels programme was providing medical tests, treatment and X-ray facilities in villages and remote areas. Around one million people were receiving free two-month supplies of medicines for diseases including cancer, heart disease and tuberculosis, she said. Ms Maryam directed IDAP CEO Shah Mir to complete the Medical District at the earliest and urged the administration of the Jinnah Institute to ensure that patients faced no unnecessary delays, medicines were not stolen and the facility remained infection-free. She said governments should deliver basic rights and healthcare at people's doorsteps, adding that forcing citizens to struggle for essential services amounted to a failure of governance. Tags: announcesdialysismachineshearttransplants