First heart transplant centre opens in Lahore

First heart transplant centre opens in Lahore

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visits an operating theatre after inaugurating the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology. — Dawn LAHORE: Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Friday inaugurated Pakistan’s first cardiac transplant centre at the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology, saying there was a need to change the mindset that better treatment could only be done abroad. She also announced the government would provide heart transplant treatment free of cost to deserving patients as it would bear up to $50,000 for a heart transplant. “By using Chinese technology, we will bring down the cost of a heart transplant to around $10,000 so that more people can benefit from this facility,” she said. “Heart transplant procedures at the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology will be done 100 per cent free of cost. We have established Pakistan’s first-of-its-kind heart transplant centre,” she said. Heart transplant procedures at Jinnah Institute of Cardiology will be 100pc free: CM The CM formally opened the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology, a 250-bed state-of-the-art facility built at a cost of Rs16bn opposite the Jinnah Hospital residential area. The JIC is an autonomous institute. The hospital has been equipped with modern cardiac care facilities, including a catheterisation laboratory, MRI, modular operation theatres, cardiac wards, pathology and radiology laboratories, intensive care and emergency departments. The chief minister praised UK-based cardiologist Dr Hasnat Khan for returning to Pakistan to serve patients. Dr Hasnat Khan said he would help train doctors and staff at the institute. Speaking to doctors and nurses, CM Maryam Nawaz urged them to serve patients as patriotic Pakistanis. “We have to change the mindset that better treatment can only be done abroad. I tell ministers, bureaucracy, officers, doctors and everyone entrusted with responsibility that if we discharge our trust in the best possible manner, we will receive the best reward,” she said. She expressed satisfaction that the JIC had become fully functional and angiography procedures had also been performed there. “The JIC was my dream; I eagerly awaited its completion,” says Maryam Nawaz. She appreciated the performance of Dr Azhar Kayani, Dr Farqad Alamgir, Dr Adnan Khan, CEO of the Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab (IDAP) Shah Mir Iqbal, Health Secretary Azmat Mahmood, Secretary Nadia Saqib and other members of the team. The chief minister announced the introduction of home dialysis machines in Punjab. She said that the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology (PIC), established by Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, was doing an excellent job in Lahore, a city with a population of around 30 million.“People from Punjab as well as Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa come to the PIC. With the growing prevalence of heart disease, it had become difficult to cater to everyone through a single public hospital,” she said. The chief minister said that comparing Pakistan with Western countries was a favourite practice, but Pakistan was only 79 years old. “Some Western countries have populations smaller than Lahore or even a street or locality here,” she observed. She said that around 100 million people visited public hospitals last year. “Medicines, surgeries and procedures are provided free of cost, while medicines are also delivered at people’s homes. In which country does this happen?” she asked. She, however, acknowledged that there was still room for improvement in the public healthcare system. “Unfortunately, medicines, injections and insulin are stolen, staff members take money, and hospital machinery is deliberately rendered dysfunctional,” she said. CM Maryam Nawaz directed IDAP CEO Shah Mir to complete the Medical District at the earliest so that patients could receive quality treatment. Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2026