Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique has said that every year, 40 to 50 thousand children are born in Pakistan with a congenital heart disease, and thousands other receive cardiac surgeries. He said that “to overcome this serious issue, Pakistan Children Heart Foundation and Punjab government would establish a center of excellene cardiac institute for children in Lahore”.
He stated this while addressing a meeting to review the project of establishing the centre of excellence institute in Lahore. Chief Executive Pakistan Children Heart Foundation and IT businessman Muhammad Farhan, Special Secretary Specialized Healthcare Dr Sajid Chauhan, Additional Secretary Technical Dr Salman Shahid, Dean Institute of Child Health and Children Hospital Prof Masood Sadiq and Medical Director Children Hospital Prof Dr Ahsan Waheed Rathore attended the meeting.
Professor Masood Sadiq informed the meeting that after the completion of the extension plan, capacity of the hospital has been increased as 600 beds and 16 operation theaters have been included in the new block. He said that on average of one thousand cardiac operations are been carried out annually in Children Hospital which would further increase.
Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore said that the Children Hospital was also providing health facilities as well as cardiac surgeries to the patients coming from other provinces especially KP.
Chief Executive of Pakistan Children Heart Foundation Muhammad Farhan told the minister that the foundation has so far borne the expenditure of cardiac surgeries of 690 children. He said that an expenditure of Rs.4 to 5 hundred thousand was borne on one surgery. All the funding is provided by the members of the foundation, he said.
Mr. Farhan informed that 9 kanals are available on the Ferozepur road with the foundation and that he has requested the Punjab government for financial assistance to build the centre of excellence institution there. He stated that an estimated cost of the project is about Rs 1.3 billion.
Khawaja Salman Rafique appreciated the humanitarian services of the foundation and said that the public and private collaboration is essential to overcome the health issues. He directed the concerned individuals to prepare a feasibility report so that it could be presented before Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif for approval.
Prof Msood Sadiq and Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore expressed their support for the proposal and said that by establishing the center of excellence for the children a lot of opportunities for the medical treatment and surgery would be available for the children born with congenital heart diseases.
