Number of Chest Pain Units (CPUs) of National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) would be enhanced to 17 in Karachi by the end of this year.
This was stated by Executive Director of NICVD, Prof. Nadeem Qamar while speaking to media on the occasion of World Pharmacists Day, which was observed at the NICVD on Tuesday.
“Currently we have seven Chest Pain Units functioning at different places of the city but by the end of December this year, we would have 17 Chest Pain Units functioning at various important points of the city”, Prof. Nadeem Qamar said.
He added that initially medicines would be provided at some of the CPUs and later on, at all the units to facilitate patients and to lessen the burden on the main NICVD building.
NICVD Provides Free Medicine To 0.5 Million Patients Annually
NICVD is providing free medicines to half a million patients at present annually.
Furthermore, it is providing medicines worth Rs. 2 million to its OPD patients on a daily basis. About 800 to 1000 patients benefit from free medicines daily, based on rough calculations.
At the moment NICVD has a team of 50 qualified pharmacists. In addition to that, NICVD pharmacists are running an anti-coagulation clinic, where patients who are given blood thinners are monitored regularly so that they are not at risk from hemorrhage and related health issues.
In order to reduce medication errors and any possibility of theft, NICVD has put in place an Electronic Requisition System (ERP), which helps doctors and pharmacists to dispense right medicines in correct dosages to the patients so that chances of medication errors can be minimized to a large extent. It is estimated that every year, around half a million people die due to medication errors.
