23 more heatwave deaths reported in city

Karachi
Despite a considerable drop in the city’s weather, health authorities in Karachi reported at least 23 more deaths due to heat stroke at different hospitals, raising the heatwave death toll to 1,256 in Karachi and 1,266 in Sindh, on Tuesday.
To add to the woes of the patients, a PMT installed outside the Qatar Hospital caught fire resulting in electricity shut down at the facility, currently providing treatment to a large number of heat stroke victims.
According to Sindh Health Department Director General Hassan Murad Shah, deaths reported during the day were of patients who had suffered heat stroke, dehydration, diarrhoea and related illnesses during the heat wave.
Since June 20, deaths were reported from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Abassi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), hospitals of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and other Sindh government’s hospitals in the city.
Hospitals across the city were still on high alert after an emergency was declared while leaves of all doctors and the paramedic staff were cancelled.
An official of the Aga Khan Hospital informed The News that they had treated around 523 patients during the intense heat spell while 31 of them died at the hospital during treatment.
However, the number of patients being treated at various public and private hospitals was reducing with each passing day.

Fire erupts at Qatar Hospital
The waiting area of the Qatar Hospital, several motorbikes and a car parked at the entrance of the hospital were gutted after a PMT installed outside caught fire allegedly due to an electricity overload; patients including heat stroke victims admitted at the facility as well as the hospital’s staff had to be evacuated.
Initially a single fire tender was dispatched from the central fire station but two more had to be sent in due to the intensity of the fire.
Hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr Khalid Shaikh claimed that people living in the vicinity as well as the factories set up near the hospital had taken illegal connections from the hospital’s PMT.
He further added that none of the patients, staff members or attendants of the patients was harmed.
“Since the fire erupted, the hospital has been without electricity and we are providing all necessary health facilities and carrying out procedures with the help of our main generator and a stand-by generator,” he said.
The hospital, however, urged the K-Electric to restore power supply to the facility as the generators could shut down any moment.

Home Minister visits JPMC
Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal while visiting the JPMC on Tuesday inquired after the health of patients admitted at the facility.
He directed the JPMC administration to provide all possible health facilities to patients’ still receiving treatment and assured that the Sindh government would provide proper facilities to the poor and needy patients.