On World Stroke Day, Maryam Nawaz pledges stroke, cardiac, children’s and cancer centres in every division, but the Lahore cardiac hospital she named had yet to begin heart surgery last month.
LAHORE: Punjab will spend an extra Rs5bn on stroke treatment and build stroke, cardiac, paediatric and cancer facilities at every divisional headquarters, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday, promising that no stroke patient in the province would be turned away for lack of funds.
Speaking on World Stroke Day at the Punjab Institute of Neurosciences (PINS) in Lahore, she also said heart transplant surgery would begin “soon” at the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology, and told officials to bring any funding shortfall directly to her.
Before speaking, she toured the institute’s intensive care unit and control room, watched neurosurgical procedures from the operating theatre gallery, met patients, and observed stroke survivors undergoing robotic physiotherapy.
A race against the clock
Stroke is Pakistan’s second-biggest killer after heart disease. The country records about 350,000 new cases and nearly 100,000 deaths a year, and has only 250 to 260 neurologists for more than 250 million people, Pakistan Stroke Society president Dr Abdul Malik said in August, according to Dawn.
The chief minister said patients had a window of four to five hours in which treatment could sharply improve recovery. She urged people to call Rescue 1122 immediately if someone develops sudden arm weakness or difficulty speaking, and said high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and high cholesterol all raise the risk.
The window matters because the main emergency drug, the clot-dissolving injection tenecteplase known as TNK, works only if given early. Maryam Nawaz said its cost was beyond most ordinary families, and that a journey from a district such as Rahim Yar Khan to Lahore could use up the time a patient has.
The network so far
Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique said Punjab now has 40 stroke centres, 38 primary and two comprehensive, offering free treatment under the Chief Minister Stroke Programme. The chief minister said 15 more would be added, with PINS Executive Director Dr Asif Bashir and head of neurology Dr Qasim Bashir training doctors and nurses.
Stroke care is currently available at PINS and General Hospital in Lahore, the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology and Sheikh Zayed Hospital, and is being extended to Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi and to hospitals in Multan and Faisalabad.
Rescue 1122 has saved 85 stroke patients by getting them to stroke centres in time, the chief minister said, crediting the service and medical teams. Set against the national caseload, that figure shows how far the system still has to go in reaching patients within the treatment window.
The Jinnah Institute question
The heart transplant pledge is the most ambitious of Thursday’s announcements. The Rs16bn Jinnah Institute of Cardiology in Lahore, a 250-bed hospital equipped with a cath lab, heart-lung machine and transplant centre, had still not begun cardiac surgery as of last month, offering angiography, angioplasty and outpatient care only.
Rafique had toured the new hospital in early September, and the health department said surgery would start soon without giving a date. Heart transplants require a full surgical and intensive care team as well as an organ donation system, and the chief minister did not say whether bypass and valve surgery had started there yet.
Rafique said Punjab had carried out 2,400 cardiac surgeries and 2.6 million dialysis sessions. The chief minister said catheterisation labs were planned in 20 districts and already operating in eight or nine, and that 15,000 to 16,000 children, including some from other provinces, had undergone heart surgery in Punjab.
Children, cancer and the cost of care
A paediatric centre will be built in every division so parents no longer have to bring sick children to Lahore, she said. A free cancer hospital under construction in Lahore will include a pain management centre for patients with advanced cancer, and facilities for genetic and blood disorders are being developed at the Nawaz Sharif Medical District.
The government had spent Rs100bn on free medicines, she said, and 100 million people had been treated in government hospitals over the past year. Field hospitals were taking care to people’s doorsteps, and factory workers were being treated on site so they would not lose a day’s wages.
Maryam Nawaz said public office was a blessing when used to improve lives, quoting the teaching that saving one life is akin to saving all of humanity, and urged people to trust Pakistani doctors and hospitals.
She did not say when the 15 new stroke centres or the divisional facilities would open, or how the additional Rs5bn would be divided between equipment, medicines and staff.
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