Daily Times

Chief Minister Children’s Heart Surgery programme has successfully completed surgeries on 530 children to date, with a notable reduction in the waiting list for children’s heart surgeries, which had been a longstanding issue.

These details were revealed during a briefing about the programme here on Sunday. The programme is being monitored through a dedicated dashboard.

The authorities concerned briefed the CM that 530 patients are being treated in six government and eight private hospitals. Registration and entry of details in central database is ensured for timely surgery of patients coming for treatment. About 4500 sick children have been referred for treatment in Punjab. Surgery and interventional cardiology procedure under the programme has been successfully completed, patients on track to recovery.

The briefing added that children’s cardiac surgery is being done at Children’s Hospital and Cardiology Institutes of Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpind, besides four private hospitals in Lahore, three in Multan and one in Islamabad.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif said that the health of every child is important. “We will try hard to save their lives,” she added. In the Children’s Heart Surgery Programme, not only Punjab, but also children from other provinces including KP will be treated, she informed. It was extremely painful for young children suffering from heart diseases to go through the agony of waiting for a year for surgery, she said.

The CM said the lack of special heart surgeons and trained allied staff would be fixed to increase capacity of children’s hospitals. She added, “We are trying to ensure treatment of every child suffering from cardiovascular diseases.”