PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has announced plans to set up two new heart treatment centres in Mardan and Bannu under the Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC), with a total cost of Rs12 billion.
Adviser to the Chief Minister on Health, Ihtesham Ali, said the provincial budget has proposed Rs7 billion for the Bannu centre and Rs5 billion for the one in Mardan. He said Rs50 million will be released for each centre to carry out feasibility studies.
“These centres will help heart patients in Mardan, Bannu, and nearby districts, and also reduce the load on PIC in Peshawar,” he told Dawn. He added that more 100-200 bed cardiac centres are needed in other districts as well.
PIC Dean, Prof Shahkar Ahmad Shah, said the long-term goal is to build similar centres in other urban districts, including Abbottabad, Swat, and possibly Kabul. “Right now, everything is in the planning stage. We need to acquire land and complete feasibility reports. The Board of Governors has approved the idea,” he said.
PIC Making Big Strides in Heart Care
PIC, which started more than four years ago, has made major progress in heart treatment. Before its launch, patients had to travel to big cities for care, which caused delays and higher costs.
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Prof Shahkar said the institute has closed this gap and improved both access and quality of heart care in the province. In 2024, PIC treated over 100,000 patients — a 50% increase from 2023. “This shows the public’s growing trust in us,” he said.
He said PIC carried out over 1,900 open-heart surgeries this year, including more than 236 life-saving operations for children. Interventional procedures like angiographies and angioplasties also rose sharply to 15,143.
The paediatric cardiac unit performed over 811 procedures in 2024 — more than double the number from the previous year. Under the Sehat Card Plus programme, 19,701 patients received free treatment in 2024.
PIC Leading in New Technologies
Prof Shahkar said PIC has introduced several new technologies in Pakistan. These include Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), MitraClip technology for valve repair, and minimally invasive valve replacements.
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PIC also became the first hospital in South Asia to offer TherOX super-saturation oxygen therapy. “We focus on techniques that reduce patient pain and speed up recovery,” he said.
Due to these efforts, PIC has become Pakistan’s first public-sector ISO certified hospital and the first public Category-A hospital recognised by the Healthcare Commission. The institute has also published over 50 research papers.
Satellite Centres to Expand Reach
The dean said the government’s aim is to expand quality heart care to underserved areas by opening more satellite centres across the province. These centres will follow the model of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Sindh, which has similar units across the province.
“This expansion will not only help locals but also patients from nearby regions,” Prof Shahkar said, adding that PIC expects a 15–20% rise in patient numbers and medical procedures this year.
