Gynae, Paeds departments at HFH to receive patients from next week

Rawalpindi : The repair and maintenance work at the Old Block of Holy Family Hospital has almost completed however the installation of system for making medical gases available in wards and operation theatres is being installed at present after which, the hospital would be ready to receive patients in the Old Block that contains Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department and Paediatrics Department.

Senior officials at the building department have informed me that the installation of system for making medical gases available in wards and OTs would most probably be completed within the next two to three days and after that, other necessary equipment would be installed in wards and OTs, said Principal Rawalpindi Medical College and In-charge Allied Hospitals Professor Dr. Jahangir Sarwar Khan while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.

He added that without making medical gases available in wards and OTs, it is not possible for the hospital to receive patients for treatment. Ensuring a proper system of medical gases is very important for the management of the patients at the hospital, he added.

It is worth mentioning here that some five to seven types of medical gases are used in different procedures in a hospital including treatment, anaesthesia and some for driving medical devices and tools. The gases commonly used in a healthcare facility include oxygen, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, argon, helium, carbon dioxide, and compressed air. Professor Jahangir said that the Paediatrics medicine and surgery department along with Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department would most probably be fully operational within the next week at the HFH. All services including indoor patient management, outpatient departments and operation theatres would be available to patients in the Old block of the hospital in the next week.

The New Block of the teaching hospital, however, may take another one month to get operational on the subject of receiving and accommodating patients at both the outpatient department and in wards. It is important that the HFH which is the biggest public sector tertiary care hospital in Rawalpindi division had stopped receiving new patients in the third week of October last year due to maintenance and repair work at the hospital.

At present, the patients have to visit Benazir Bhutto Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital and Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Transplantation along with Red Crescent Hospital as various departments of the HFH were shifted to these four hospitals. Professor Jahangir said the heaviest burden of patients at the allied hospitals has always been of patients at gynaecology and paediatrics departments and as soon as the Old Block of HFH start receiving patients, the miseries of a huge number of patients would certainly be minimised to a significant level.