Imdad 
Mohammed Ishaq hurried to organise a costly private ambulance to Karachi after his younger brother developed severe chest pains in a rural hamlet in the southern Pakistani state of Balochistan earlier this week.
Only Balochistan Hospital Offerings Cardiac Therapies
Before Ishaq could begin on the lengthy trek from a Killa Abdullah district village to the port city of Karachi in a neighboring province, he found that his brother might receive similarly adequate care at a new public hospital considerably closer to home in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.
The 120-bed Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Institute of Cardiology, which was constructed over an area of more than 120,000 square meters, was opened last month. The facility, constructed by the UAE at a cost of $27.3 million from the Abu Dhabi Development Fund, is now available for even the most complex surgical procedures.
Ishaq told Arab News
He booked an ambulance to transport his younger brother Asmatullah to Karachiwhen he had acute chest symptoms. However, a family member informed us that there was a new cardiac center in Quetta, so we decided to bring him here on Wednesday morning.
The outpatient component of the hospital debuted in May, followed by angioplasties and more sophisticated heart procedures six months later. In the 26 days since the facility’s full opening, there have been 12 bypass and valve replacement operations.
Asif Khan, a 60-year-old resident of Quetta’s Nawa Killi area who underwent open-heart surgery on December 20 at the hospital, stated that he had to travel twice to Sukkur in the adjacent Sindh province for treatment after being diagnosed with heart illness in April.
Read Also | IMF requests Pakistan to comply with demands within three weeks to restart halted programme
Read Also | Trade relations between the UAE and Pakistan are going strong
“Then, in the first week of December, I went to the Sheikh Zayed Al-Nahyan Institute of Cardiology for my annual physical, and the physicians assured me that my open-heart surgery could also be conducted here.”
According to Dr. Khuzaima Tariq, who has worked at the institution for the past six months
The institute is the only hospital in Balochistan that offers a comprehensive variety of cardiac therapies.
She stated, “This health center is open to anyone from all four provinces of the country.”
“All cardiac facilities are available here. Cath Lab services, pacemaker implantation, and open-heart surgery are all accessible here. We have begun open-heart surgery in a modular operating room.”
Tariq declined to comment on whether the clinic subsidized surgical procedures or how much patients were charged.
Dr. Mohammed Hashim, her colleague, stated that a big number of patients were now arriving at the hospital on a regular basis, adding that many patients from Afghanistan were now seeking treatment.
“Until recently, inhabitants of Balochistan lacked access to adequate cardiac care,” he explained. Patients who used to go to cities like Karachi and Sukkur are now receiving adequate care from qualified medical professionals.
Another heart patient, Zahoor Ahmed, expressed relief that there was finally a cutting-edge center nearby.
“Doctors advised me to travel to Sukkur, but transportation to Sukkur from here was too expensive. It was quite a distance,” Ahmed stated from his medical bed in the institution. Now that we are close, and in one location, we have access to all amenities.
