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Need stressed to promote preventive cardiology

RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD: Professor Dr Shahryar A Sheikh, President, Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology, has stressed the need for promoting preventive cardiology at the grass-roots level to check the spread of cardiovascular diseases in adults of sub-continent.

He was addressing a national symposium on 'preventive cardiology' organised by the Pakistan Cardiac Society (PCS) in collaboration with the Department of Cardiology, Punjab Medical College and Allied Hospital, here on Saturday.

Expressing concern over the increasing coronary artery disease, he said it has acquired a real epidemic form, particularly, in adults of the age group of 40 to 45 years. The developed countries have established state of art coronary care units, fully equipped with modern and hi-tech gadgets as they can offer best treatment to its people. The people living in these countries have also changed their life style by taking balanced food with calculated calories, changing eating habits and life style coupled with regular exercise.

He said being underdeveloped country, neither the government nor people of Pakistan can afford finances to meet the expenses of costly treatment and surgery of cardiovascular diseases. The crux of the matter is that we cannot treat such large number of patients. Hence, the Asia Pacific Society is supporting promotion of preventive cardiology. However, he expressed satisfaction and said cardiology departments have been set up at district level throughout the Punjab with the ECG and stress machines etc. But we have to go a long way in controlling the schematic heart diseases.

Professor Shahryar stressed for collective and joint effort by the government, physicians and community with dominating role of to stop spread-of cardiovascular diseases.

He was appreciative of the local community and said that it is very responsive towards the promotion of medical profession in Faisalabad and hoped that it would continue to extend full cooperation in arresting cardiovascular diseases.

Welcoming the national symposium on preventive cardiology, he said Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology and Pakistan Cardiac Society have always been supportive to academic and social activities as such symposia provide an excellent opportunity to our colleagues to exchange views on current concepts in cardiology.

He further said the cardiologists of Lahore and Karachi have been bogged down with their routine matters and are not ready to leave these cities. Hence, young doctors and specialists of medium sized towns like Faisalabad should visit their neighbouring districts for the spread of knowledge at the grass-root level.

Addressing as the chief guest, Dr Abdul Majid Rajput, Chief Executive, Punjab Medical Collage, Allied Hospital and Divisional Headquarters Hospital Faisalabad, said the selection of Faisalabad for holding this national symposium is a trust building initiative and inherently anticipates greater commitment by the facility towards continuing medical education.

He said the participation of the family physicians would enhanced the private-public partnership and would assist in strengthening referral linkage at the service level.

He further said the health care delivery system, private or public, is facing challenges which are multiple and real, and require immediate attention of the profession.

He said greater public expectation, growing health awareness, limited allocation of resources and cost effective clinical practice without compromising the quality are a few issues to be mentioned.

"Competence alone is not sufficient", he said and added that consumer perspectives and changing trends of disease burden demand more emphasis on continuing medical education.

Pattern of cardiac illness in developed societies is fast spreading without having achieved an effective reduction of existing burden of disease in developing country.

It is yet another dimension of the complexity of the problem, he said and hoped that this symposium would focus and provide some answers to the issue relating to the quality care, consumer satisfaction, efficient utilisation of resources and above all the greater challenges of the new century.