SAHIWAL: A proposal has been floated for establishment of an interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery block at the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital (STH) at a cost of Rs3.4 billion as the existing facilities at the cardiology ward of the hospital are insufficient to cater to the needs of serious cardiac patients.

Such patients have to go either to Multan or Lahore for heart surgery or advance treatment and there is a need to establish a new interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery block at the hospital.

According to sources, a large number of patients from three districts and surrounding rural localities put pressure on doctors and paramedics at the teaching hospital who find it hard to deal with them.

Dr Muhammad Hassam, the assistant professor of community medicine at the Sahiwal Medical College (SMC), says the current cardiac ward cannot handle pressure and all emergency patients who need cardiovascular procedures like coronagraph, angiography, percutaneous coronary interventions, electrophysiology, open heart and heart valve replacement surgery. He says these patients have to be referred to the heart disease facilities in Faisalabad, Lahore and Multan, which causes loss of human life.

SMC Principal Dr Imran Hasan says as the health department is tak-ing a number of initiatives to provide quality healthcare services at the doorsteps of the community and instead of developing a separate cardiology institute or hospital, funds should be provided for the establishment of an interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery block at the teaching hospital.

`This will facilitate not only the cardiac patients of the Sahiwal district but also cater to the rural and urban community of nearby cities of Okara, Pakapttan, Vehari, Sumanderi, Chichawatni, Arifwala, Bahawalnager and Toba Tak Singh, suggests Dr Hasan.

Dr Muhammad Aleem, the director finance, says the divisional administration has sent the proposal to the authorities for a cardiology institute in the city but it was dropped because of the lack of development funds from the provincial government.

Commissioner Shoaib Iqbal agrees that a cardiac facility is needed as the Sahiwal division has 6.5m population. He says the medical college and the divisional administration have worked on an alternative proposal for establishing the block.

SMC Principal Imran Hasan welcomes the move, saying, `If this alternative proposal is accepted, it will definitely reduce the patients` burden on the cardiac centres at Lahore and Multan`.

Malik Arshad and Malik Nadeem Kamran,thePML-Nparliamentarians from Sahiwal, talking to Dawn say they would push the proposal to beadded to the Annual Development Plan (ADP) 2024-2025.

Malik Nadeem says there is a caretaker setup and a new ADP plan is being developed but it is hoped that the new government will take up the proposal.

To the question that how the caretaker setup will approve such a mega project, Commissioner Shoaib Iqbal says approval of the plan can be done subject to the permission by the chief executive.

The sources have told Dawn that the duration of completion of the project is 24 months.

Local social, political and medical professional circles demanded from provincial authorities to push up proposals for approval.

WHEAT: The food department confiscated two trucks for smuggling 700 wheat bags from the Sahiwal division to other areas and arrested their drivers.

The drivers, identified as Rashid Ali and Gulzar Ahmed, were booked under the Punjab Foodstuffs Control Act 1958.

Imran Munir, the deputy director food, said the food department was procuring wheat and a ban had been imposed on the wheat mobility from the district. He said the food department had established 43 check posts to stop illegal wheat mobility.

He said the staff checked two trucks at Iqbal Nagar, tehsil Sahiwal and Thaliwala Khou, tehsil Depalpur, and found 700 wheat bags loaded on them.