Kath lacking space to handle influx of respiratory infections’ victims

MANSEHRA: King Abdullah Teaching Hospital (Kath), which has recently been handed over to the health department on completion of reconstruction work by Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority, is insufficient to cater to the influx of patients suffering from pneumonia and other respiratory tract infections.

“We are welcoming the influx of children taken to our hospital with pneumonia and other respiratory tract infections despite a shortage of beds,” Dr Anila Farhat, the head of Paeds Department, told reporters on Thursday.

She said because of the current cold wave, which started in the district since mid-December, more than 976 children were hospitalised. “We have been even keeping two or sometimes three children on a single bed,” Dr Anila said.

protest: The furniture makers on Thursday took to the streets against what they called unjustified crackdown launched by the Forest Department.

The protesters assembled outside the deputy commissioner office and raised slogans against the authorities concerned.

“We are neither involved in any sort of timber smuggling nor purchasing suspicious timber. But officials removed our small saw machines causing us financial losses,” Mohammad Sajid, the president of Furniture Makers Association, told the rally. “We have registered our small saw machines with the Forest Department but even then our community is being harassed,” said another speaker, Riaz. The association’s general secretary Mohammad Javed said that if the ongoing harassment of their community didn’t come to an end, they would appeal to the court of law. Speaking on the occasion, the association’s patron-in-chief Nazeer Khan said that the chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should initiate action against those involved in harassing furniture makers.

Later, the protesters also handed over complaints to the deputy commissioner, requesting him to heed their issue.