LAHORE  - Shortage of cardiac surgeons, burden of paying and protocol patients and under-utilisation of available resources is causing difficulties for entitled and poor category patients at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology as waiting list here has swelled well over 5,000, The Nation has learnt.
Those having no resources to bear cost have to wait for 18 months, provided they survive for such a long period.
Insiders claim that some cardiac surgeons are ‘smuggling patients from the PIC’ to private institutions they are working at to earn extra money. Cardiac surgeons smuggle patients as they get their share from Rs 250,000 to Rs 325,000 given by paying patients at PIC while the cost at private institutions ranges from Rs 400,000 to Rs 600,000.
PIC management, however, said that 1,500 not 5,000 were waiting for surgery but the veracity of this claim is questionable as in such a situation there is no justification for the PIC to keep patients await for surgical procedure for so long.
“As many as 10 to 12 minor and major surgical procedures are carried out everyday at six functional operation theatres of the PIC. This means the entire waiting list of 1,500 patients can be exhausted in just six months.
At present. patients are being given dates beyond September 2015, which shows that well over 5,000 are there on the waiting list”,  insiders said.
They say the management is not computerizing waiting list to hide facts and to accommodate paying and protocol patients out-of-turn.
“As many as 10 patients are operated upon every day who pay for their treatment, or have been referred by the Punjab chief minister, head of institution and Medical Superintendent.
This leaves room only for two "entitled and poor category patients" daily. Three out of nine Operation Theatres are not functional as there are only six cardiac surgeons to perform surgery.
Though the capacity of the PIC has gone up after the construction of Ali Surgical Block having four Operation Theatres and 40 bed Intensive Care Unit in June 2011, the number of patients getting open heart surgery has decreased. 
With the addition of Ali Surgical Block, number of Operation Theatres went up to nine and total bed capacity of Intensive Care Units to 60.
Over 2,000 open heart surgeries were performed at PIC during 2010-11. After the addition of 40 bed ICU and four Operation Theatres, only 1,850 open heart surgeries were performed at PIC during 2011-12. During the fiscal year 2012-13, only 1,937 open heart surgeries were performed.  The management said that three out of nine Operation Theatres were not functional due to shortage of cardiac surgeons.
“We have requested Punjab Health Department to fill vacant posts of cardiac surgeons. This will help making three remaining Operation Theatres functional”, said Chief Executive PIC Prof Bilal Zakrya.
Insiders claimed that internal politics and hunger for power among cardiac surgeons was hampering normal functioning of the Institute.
“One out of two posts of Professor of Surgery is lying vacant for over a year. As such only one professor is heading the team of surgeons. Existing surgeons want to continue monopoly and as such they do not want some others to enter the Institute”, said a senior doctor who desired not to be quoted. He went on to say that these elements were even hindering functioning of a separate Pediatrics Cardiac Surgery Unit at the PIC.
“One each seat of professor, associate professor and assistant professor and three seats of senior registrars are lying vacant in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. As such there is no specialized doctor to perform Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at PIC”, he said, adding, lack of this facility at the provincial capital was a big question mark.
Interestingly, this facility is available at Ch Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology, Multan. Two surgeons Dr Tariq Waqar and Dr Zaigham are carrying out Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Institute in Multan but there is no one at the PIC, he added.