New Block at HFH yet to get fully operational

Rawalpindi: The New Block of Holy Family Hospital (HFH) that had stopped receiving patients in the third week of October last year due to maintenance and repair work may not be able to resume working for another one-and-a-half months.

At the time of closure of the HFH, the biggest public sector tertiary care hospital in Rawalpindi division, it was announced that the revamping of the hospital would take three to four months however only two departments of the hospital – Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department and Paediatrics Department – have resumed working in the Old Block some two weeks back. It is important that the installation of system for making medical gases available in wards and intensive care units at the old block is still in progress and the paeds and neonatal ICUs are still functioning partially.

The maintenance and repair work at the New Block of the hospital would most probably be completed till the middle of the next month, April and the departments in the new block would be able to receive and accommodate patients after that, said Principal Rawalpindi Medical College and In-charge Allied Hospitals Professor Dr. Jahangir Sarwar Khan while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.

He added a lot of work is yet to be done at the New Block and at present, the building department is working hard to revamp the new block. It is important that the new block of the HFH would contain all departments except gynae and paeds departments. At the time of closure of HFH in October last year, the two units of Medicine Department of HFH were shifted to RIUT while one unit of Surgery Department of HFH was shifted to BBH and the other to DHQ Hospital. The anaesthesia department of HFH was shifted to BBH and DHQ Hospital and the Department of Infectious Diseases at HFH was shifted to Red Crescent Hospital near to College Chowk along Saidpur Road. The Eye Department of the HFH has been operating at the BBH.

It is important that due to relocation of various departments of HFH to other hospitals, thousands of patients have been suffering badly for months. It is hardly possible for the other teaching hospitals to accommodate the heavy influx of HFH patients swiftly as the HFH was operating with not less than 1200 beds before its closure.

It is also worth mentioning here that the heaviest burden of OPD and emergency patients was being accommodated at the HFH before the maintenance and repair work was started at the hospital.

Senior officials at the HFH, however, are of the view that not only the building of the HFH but also the healthcare systems at the hospital were in need of improvement and to get the hospital revamped, the administration has no other option but to advise patients to visit BBH, DHQ Hospital and Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Transplantation.