PIMS treats 5,500 patients during Eid holidays

Islamabad: Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) received extra burden of patients from ‘Chand Raat’ to the third day of Eidul Fitr at its emergency department as outpatient department of the hospital has not been operational since Friday in connection with Eid holidays.
Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that the PIMS emergency department received as many as 5,500 patients from Friday to third day of Eid of which 3,700 were suffering from gastroenteritis. Only 20 of the patients reached PIMS with gastroenteritis were admitted to the hospital emergency while the rest were discharged after necessary first aid treatment.
The registration of greater number of patients with gastroenteritis does not signify an outbreak of the disease instead it was so because most of the private clinics and hospitals were not operating their OPD on Eid holidays, said PIMS spokesman Dr. Wasim Ahmed Khawaja while talking to ‘The News’ on Monday.
He added the majority of gastroenteritis patients reported at PIMS were not serious. He, however, said that the PIMS received as many as 200 cases of road traffic accidents majority of which were motorcyclists who reached hospital after sustaining serious head injuries.The number of trauma cases remained high from ‘Chand Raat’ to the first day of Eidul Fitr mainly because of road traffic accidents involving wheelie activity in town, said Dr. Khawaja.
He said that of 200 plus RTA cases, as many as 30 reached hospitals in serious condition and not less than 60 of these patients are admitted to the neurosurgery ward for treatment. He said the surgical department has so far performed surgeries in as many as 20 cases of the road traffic accidents.
To a query, he said well over 1,500 cases of OPD nature including diabetics, heart patients but not in critical condition and patients with fever and other mild ailments were reported at PIMS during Eid holidays till Monday.
He added the emergency department at children hospital of PIMS also treated nearly 400 child patients with gastroenteritis during Eid holidays so far. He, however, added the situation at the hospital remained normal and no untoward incident has been reported at the hospital from Friday till Monday morning.