The government is taking a series of initiatives to strengthen cardiac treatment and reduce the number of patients seeking medical care abroad, health ministry officials said.
There are plans to slash the price of heart stents, establish new catheterization labs (cath labs), and launch coronary care units (CCUs) in key districts, aiming to expand access to cardiac services beyond the capital.
In addition, the government is working to create cardiologist posts in various hospitals and simplify and speed up the registration process of heart treatment devices in the Department of Drug Administration. Under these steps, in addition to reducing the cost of treatment, the scope of heart disease treatment services will be expanded in several districts outside Dhaka.
“These steps are meant to address the shortage of infrastructure and specialist doctors, which currently contributes to over 200,000 heart-related deaths annually,” said Professor Dr Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the chief adviser, following a high-level meeting at the health ministry.
He also said, “We have identified the problems in the treatment of heart disease. We will try to give priority to increasing medical services outside Dhaka so that patients do not have to come to Dhaka.”
Experts said that due to the lack of adequate infrastructure and specialist doctors, a large number of heart patients in the country are being deprived of necessary treatment.
According to the Cardiac Surgeons Society, there are 42 cardiac care units in the country, both government and private, of which 32 have facilities for cardiovascular surgery.
At present, cardiac surgery is performed in only three government institutions: the National Heart Institute, Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Chittagong Medical College Hospital. There are cath labs in Sylhet, Rangpur and Khulna, where angiograms are performed, but surgery is not performed.
Every year, 10-12 thousand cardiac surgeries are performed in the country. But the need for surgery is about 25 thousand. Cath labs are very important for the treatment of heart disease. Various tests including angiogram, angioplasty, pacemaker or ICD implantation are performed in this lab.
Despite having 87 cath labs across the country — most of them in Dhaka — eight remain idle due to lack of trained personnel. Major hospitals outside the capital often lack surgical facilities, limiting treatment to basic diagnostics like angiograms.
According to the Pediatric Cardiac Society (PCSB), about 4 lakh children in the country are suffering from various types of heart disease. Every year, about 50 thousand children are born with congenital heart disease. Every year, about 40 percent of children with heart disease die due to lack of treatment.
Professor Dr A B M Abdus Salam, vice president of the PCSB and former head of the Department of Child Cardiology at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, said there are no more than 30 pediatric cardiologists in the country – and nearly all of them practice exclusively in Dhaka.
According to the Ministry of Health, another cath lab will be set up at the National Heart Institute and Hospital. There are currently seven cathlabs in this hospital, but not all of them are always functional.
Although cath labs have been set up in Faridpur, Tangail and Manikganj hospitals, their use has not started. The government aims to start these cath labs soon. A coronary care unit (CCU) will be set up at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital.
In addition, initiatives will be taken to expand heart disease treatment at Bogura, Rajshahi and Dinajpur Medical College Hospitals.
Apart from this, the meeting decided to determine the new price of stents in the country by reviewing the average price of stents (heart rings) in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal and the tax structure of Bangladesh. This difference is not very much in the case of low-cost stents. But the difference is a lot in the case of stents costing more than 1 lakh taka.
(Translated by Tanvir Raihan)
