ALL FOR A PERFECT BEAT: Katherine Kelly, cardiac nurse from Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia, on an aerobic bike in Hyderabad on Sunday. — Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

HYDERABAD: Assembly Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy has expressed concern over the growing incidence of heart disease in rural areas and called for creating awareness among people to prevent them.

Inaugurating `My Heart Rehab Centre,' a private clinic set up with Australian collaboration, on Sunday, he said while lifestyle changes and work culture were among the causes for cardiac problems in urban areas, the rising trend in rural areas was a matter of concern. He urged health experts to look into the reasons.

Prateek Bhatnagar, consultant cardiac surgeon and MD of the centre, said heart disease was no.1 killer in the country. Genetic factors and lifestyle changes could be among the causes.

The centre would help patients arrest the disease and control risk factors. Dr. Bhatnagar said studies had showed that those who participated in the rehabilitation programme had 35 per cent higher possibility of survival after five years.

Katherine Kelly, cardiac nurse from Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia, said the outcomes of the rehab programmes in her country were successful.

Cardiac facility

Meanwhile, Apollo Hospitals has announced setting up of a Rs.50-crore high-end cardiac facility in a year. Another cathlab and more theatres are to be added with the facility.

K. Hariprasad, CEO, at a press conference here said their cardiothoracic surgery team had achieved a milestone by conducting 10,000 open-heart surgeries. Apollo institutions all over the country had so far performed 60,000 surgeries.

Patients from within the country and 25 from abroad — the Gulf, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda — were operated upon by the team headed by Vijay Dixit.

Health insurance

Although 80,000 heart surgeries were performed in the country last year, the requirement was enormous, Dr. Dixit said and suggested to the Government to make health insurance compulsory for people who could not afford cardiac surgeries.

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