KARACHI: On Tuesday, a key member of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) was suspended from his assignment just one day after he declared the suspension of all operations at the health facility and its satellite centres in Tando Mohammad Khan and Sukkur due to the prevalence of Covid-19 in several staff members, sources and officials said.
NICVD:
“A hospital order signed by NICVD executive director Prof Nadeem Qamar without specifying anything about Dr Pervez Chaudhry, former head of surgery at the institute, is informed for details that Dr Asad Bilal Awan, Associate Professor of Cardiac Surgery, was given additional charge as Acting Head of Cardiac Surgery Department with immediate effect.”
Dr Chaudhry had announced on Monday cancellation of all the surgeries at the NICVD-Karachi and its satellite centres in Tando Mohammad Khan and Sukkur for a week after some surgeons, nurses and paramedics tested positive for the infectious disease.
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However the fresh directions from the executive director of the NICVD did not address the state of the department of surgery. Dharti News tried to get the version from the spokesperson for the Institute, but he did not respond to several phone calls.
About 15 physicians, surgeons and other personnel have tested positive for coronavirus infection.
As the head of the surgical department of one of the country’s main cardiac treatment centres, Dr Chaudhry sounded angry about the decision when approached, but did not clarify any justification for his dismissal.
‘Personal agenda’
He just “regretted” that he was asked to return from the United States to represent the country and now after maintaining the defined rules and health habits, it is a kind of embarrassment to replace him with his “student.”
As a precautionary measure, he postponed all surgeries on Monday to shield surgeons and other health employees as well as patients from any complications. He noted that they had agreed not as a precautionary measure, to discharge any patient who had been operated on for at least a week.
“If the department of surgery were reopened, they would endanger public health with their own agenda,” Dr. Chaudhry told Dharti News.
Sources told the situation that about 15 NICVD team members, including physicians, surgeons and other staff, had tested positive for infectious disease, causing them to cancel all operations and elective treatments, leaving the cardiac treatment centre with only emergency facilities operating.
Sources told the situation that about 15 NICVD team members, including physicians, surgeons and other staff, had tested positive for infectious disease, causing them to cancel all operations and elective treatments, leaving the cardiac treatment centre with only emergency facilities operating.
The NICVD has emerged as one of the success storeys claimed by the Pakistan People’s Party government in Sindh, with more than 100 highly trained surgeons, doctors and trainees, delivering superior cardiac care to nearly 400,000 OPD patients, 37,000 inpatients and almost 200,000 emergency cases per year. For its free-of-cost programmes to any section of society, the institute was also lauded.
The financial activities of the Institute, however, came under the radar of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which launched an investigation against the NICVD over corruption charges under Section 19 of the National Accountability Ordinance more than two years ago.
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It happened during the investigation that the NICVD’s executive director was in “possession of some information/evidence related to the commission of the offense(s).”
The NAB investigation is still on and just last month the team of the bureau raided the NICVD, reviewed its financial reports, interrogated health facility staff, gathered related documents and returned to the largest specialist public-sector hospital after more than five hours creating questions about financial affairs and calling for strong reaction from the ruling PPP on the anti-graft agency.
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