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LAHORE:
The Chief Minister’s Adult Cardiac Surgery Programme has been launched, under which free treatment facilities worth more than Rs 3 billion will be provided to heart patients annually.
Charing a meeting at the Punjab Health Initiative Management Company, Provincial Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique said the programme was being started in the first phase with nine government and 15 private cardiac institutions in the province.
The government institutions are the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan and Wazirabad institutes of cardiology, Quaid-i-Azam Medical College Bahawalpur, Sardar Fateh Muhammad Khan Institute of Cardiology Dera Ghazi Khan and Sheikh Zayed Hospital and Medical College Rahim Yar Khan.
More hospitals will also be empaneled under the programme.
Government cardiac institutions are also being upgraded under the programme.
The minister said the waiting list for adult cardiac surgeries will be significantly reduced. All types of heart surgery have been included in the programme.
The government cardiac institutions will be the primary registration and treatment centres and referral to private hospitals will be done only through multidisciplinary teams.

