KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah approved on 5 June 2024 an additional amount of Rs520 million for the new under construction paediatric unit at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD). He was presiding over the 82nd governing body meeting of the institute at the CM House. The attendees included Health minister Dr Azra Pechuho, Mayor Karachi Murtaza Wahab, MPAs Sadiya Javed, Rukhsana Parveen, secretary finance Fayaz Jatoi, secretary to CM Raheem Shaikh, secretary health Rehan Baloch and executive director NICVD Dr Tahir Saghir.
The officials, considering the heavy workload of paeds cardiac patients, decided that the two floors of the dedicated building would be functionalized next year for which an amount of Rs520 million was approved. The project was launched in 2016-17.
During the briefing, the chief minister was informed that the procurement of MRI machines had been approved for Rs628.3m during the current financial year 2023-2024 for the facilitation of stroke intervention programme.
The NICVD Executive Director proposed to the chief minister that the grant-in-aid/budget for the year 2024-2025 for the hospital might be increased given the significant inflation experienced over the past two years, coupled with the substantial escalation of dollar-based cost and the increased expenses related to employees and imported equipment.
The hospital was earlier allocated Rs8bn grant-in aid/budget for the financial year 2023-24.
The CM directed the health minister and secretary finance to assess and evaluate the needs of NICVD and send him recommendations for approval.
The board also approved the appointment of Dr Tahir Saghir as executive director of the NICVD.
The chief minister directed the NICVD administration to develop a patient treatment tracking system under which all the expenditures, tests, procedures and medicines prescribed could be tracked or identified.
