Karachi: At a time when advanced heart treatment in Pakistan can cost hundreds of thousands, and in many cases millions of rupees, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) treated more than 1.6 million patients in 2025 without charging a single rupee, quietly positioning itself among the world’s largest providers of free cardiac care.
According to NICVD’s annual performance data, the Karachi-based heart hospital delivered completely free services ranging from emergency angioplasties to complex open-heart surgeries and high-end valve procedures, benefiting patients from across all provinces.
During the year, NICVD Karachi performed 9,205 primary angioplasties, 6,442 early and elective angioplasties, and over 18,700 angiographies. These are procedures that routinely cost hundreds of thousands of rupees in private hospitals and are often unaffordable for most families.
Paediatric heart care remained a major focus. The hospital carried out 3,149 paediatric catheterisations and interventions, along with 285 PTMC procedures, providing lifesaving treatment to children who would otherwise face long waiting lists or prohibitive costs.
One of the most expensive cardiac procedures globally, Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), was also performed free of cost. During 2025, 41 TAVI procedures, each costing around Rs4 million, were successfully carried out with the support of the Sindh government, offering critically ill patients access to treatment that is rarely available even in many developed health systems.
NICVD also reported 1,567 adult open-heart surgeries and 1,231 paediatric open-heart surgeries during the year. In addition, 66 stroke interventions were performed, while 964 temporary pacemakers and 1,167 permanent pacemakers were implanted, further expanding access to advanced and high-cost cardiac care.
The scale of routine services was equally striking. The hospital recorded 445,209 adult and paediatric outpatient visits, performed 88,484 echocardiography procedures, and admitted 54,131 patients, while maintaining round-the-clock emergency cardiac services, all provided entirely free of cost.
Importantly, NICVD functioned as a national referral centre rather than a provincial facility. In 2025 alone, 158,266 patients from outside Sindh received free treatment at NICVD Karachi. These included over 109,000 patients from Balochistan, more than 35,000 from Punjab, nearly 11,600 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along with patients from Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Commenting on the achievement, Prof Tahir Saghir, Executive Director NICVD, said the hospital’s performance was made possible through consistent support from the Government of Sindh. He said NICVD continues to provide a complete spectrum of cardiac services, including surgeries, angioplasties, electrophysiology procedures, stroke interventions and advanced diagnostics, completely free of cost to patients from across the country.
He added that a new outpatient department block has recently been inaugurated to cope with the growing patient load and improve service delivery, reiterating that no patient should be denied quality heart care due to financial constraints.
In a healthcare environment where out-of-pocket expenses for heart disease frequently push families into debt or poverty, NICVD’s experience raises a larger public-interest question: can Pakistan replicate this model of free, high-volume, high-quality care in other critical areas of the health system?