Allied hospitals strengthened for Election Day

Rawalpindi : Accident and emergency departments at two of the three teaching hospitals in town including Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital are being strengthened in connection with general elections going to be held on Thursday (tomorrow) though the hospitals have received no notification from the Punjab government regarding high alert at the hospitals, at least till filing of this report.

Holy Family Hospital is not fully operational at the moment because of ongoing maintenance and repair work at the hospital however we have started strengthening emergency departments at BBH and DHQ Hospital for Election Day, said Principal Rawalpindi Medical College and In-charge Allied Hospitals Professor Dr. Jahangir Sarwar Khan while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.

He added that his office has not received any notification from the provincial government as yet in this regard. The allied hospitals have made all necessary arrangements to deal with, God forbid, any bigger emergency on the day of polling. To further strengthen accident and emergency departments, a good number of beds in different wards would be kept vacated to deal with extraordinary burden of emergency patients, he said.

He added the outpatient departments and main operation theatres at the allied hospitals shall remain closed on Thursday in connection with Election Day however the resources available at the OPDs and the staff deputed there would be utilized to strengthen emergency medical services at BBH and DHQ Hospital.

He added the OPDs would not operate on Thursday however the allied hospitals would receive patients round the clock at their accident and emergency departments. Senior level administrative staff including additional medical superintendents and deputy medical superintendents would remain on duty at the allied hospitals while specialists and consultants of all units would remain on call, said the RMC principal.

He added that operation theatres at the emergency departments would remain operational and senior Registrar level doctors would be available to patients in the hospitals on Election Day. Consultants, assistant professors and above, would be on call. The hospitals have already arranged sufficient quantities of medicines at the emergency departments, said Professor Jahangir.