In 2010, after the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the Health Sector was completely devolved to the provinces and rightfully so, since health being a major necessity, the idea of control emanating from Islamabad was only a flawed one.
Though 8 years have passed since devolution, it will not be entirely accurate to say that complete devolution has taken place and the federal government in some areas of health still continues to assert its influence or nuisance (if I may say so) over health institutions. One may also add that the hon’ble courts have also been involved in this issue with certain cases pending adjudication either at the original or appellate level.
Having shared the negative aspect, let me now share the performance of an institution that greatly benefited from devolution. The institution is called the “National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases”. It was established in the year 1963 to cater to patients with heart ailments. It was located in the Karachi and patients from all over the country visited NICVD for medical treatment. Unfortunately, no other similar institution like NICVD was established by the Federal Government in Sindh. Therefore, poor people from all over the Province and even from Balochistan and other places had to come all the way to Karachi for their heart treatment. Needless to say that this was extremely unfortunate since heart patients need immediate and urgent specialist attention and at time even a delay of a minute proves to be fatal.
Keeping the concept of devolution and imminence of medical treatment for heart patients in mind, I can safely conclude that NICVD emerges as an institution par excellence. No offence to other institutions, but this institution has greatly benefited first from the transfer of control from Federal Government to Provincial Government and then kudos to Government of Sindh for giving greater autonomy and control to the management of NICVD. The reason that I write this is because of the autonomy, the able management has managed to ameliorate the functioning and performance of NICVD by treating thousand of patients free of cost. It is reported that annually NICVD takes care of 400,000 patients in OPD, 37000 inpatients and about 200,000 emergency patients.
Now that the desired levels of efficiency and deliverance have been achieved, the management with the assistance of Government of Sindh has started opening Satellite Centres of NICVD all over the Province of Sindh. As I write, besides Karachi, three Satellite Centres have already been established in Larkana, Tando Mohammad Khan and Hyderabad. These centres are up and running providing quality treatment to heart patients who do not necessarily need to come all the way to Karachi but now have the option of going to a more convenient centre.
To further augment the concept of efficient medical service, Chest Pain Units have also been established at 5 various locations in Karachi since May, 2017. The idea of these units is very simple, quality heart treatment at a place closer to home. It is reported that in the 7 months these units have so far attended to 13,000 patients out of whom 977 were suffering from active heart attacks.
I have personally visited NICVD with a patient and have been very impressed with the way and manner patients are attended to. It is noteworthy that poor patients are treated free of cost and no discrimination takes place. Moreover, it is very heartening to see that NICVD despite being a Provincially funded Institution treats patients from all over the country, thereby clearly depicting the spirit of the Federation of Pakistan. The quality and cost of NICVD can be compared with any other similar institution in the country. The price that patients pay in Punjab is many a times higher than what patients are paying at NICVD.
The evolution of NICVD is genuinely praiseworthy. Highest accolades and appreciation needs to be given to the management for coming up with novel and efficient way of serving public, to the Government of Sindh for supporting and implementing the ideas and the donors whose generosity and benevolence helps achieving the desired objectives.
Keeping politics aside, NICVD should be studied as a model institution. Its independence, autonomy and accountability should be replicated in all other similar institutions in the country so that quality medical treatment, a fundamental right guaranteed by the constitution is given to all Pakistanis without any discrimination.
Published in Daily Times, December 26th 2017.