Pindi’s Allied hospitals filled to their capacity

Rawalpindi: The three teaching hospitals in town have been filled to their maximum possible capacity made available to accommodate dengue fever patients after which the Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) administration has started finalising a plan to adopt phase-3 to facilitate patients of the infection.
The RMC administration gave a briefing to Punjab Chief Secretary Khizar Hayat Gondal on phase-3 when he visited Benazir Bhutto Hospital the other day to check quality of services being rendered to dengue fever patients there, said RMC Principal and Chief Allied Hospitals Professor Dr. Muhammad Umar while talking to ‘The News’ on Wednesday.
He added the Chief Secretary was informed that in phase-1, the allied hospitals arranged a capacity of 200 beds for treatment of dengue fever patients while in phase-2; the capacity was enhanced to 400 beds by vacating beds in a number of departments of the hospitals.
We informed the Chief Secretary that the number of dengue fever patients admitted to the allied hospitals crossed the figure of 400 on Saturday after which the RMC started working on finalising phase-3 in which other hospitals in town like Cantonment General Hospital and Social Security Hospital would be utilised to accommodate additional burden of dengue fever patients if needed.
He said the chief secretary visited dengue fever counter and paediatrics section at BBH to witness quality of care being arranged for dengue fever patients. The chief secretary also discussed phase-3 with the RMC administration and talked to dengue fever patients at the BBH to check satisfaction level of patients.
Professor Umar said the allied hospitals including BBH, Holy Family Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital have so far admitted well over 2,500 patients of dengue fever including confirmed and suspected ones while over 20,000 patients have been examined and screened at the three hospitals for the infection.
To a query, he said as many as 240 nurses serving at the three teaching hospitals have been deployed to accommodate dengue fever patients in dengue wards established by vacating beds in different departments of the hospitals while 80 to 100 doctors have been specifically working on dengue fever patients.
He added as many as 20 specialists and 20 senior officers in hospitals’ administration have also been deployed to facilitate dengue fever patients. “We briefed the chief secretary on resources of the hospitals being spent for treatment of dengue fever patients,” he said. He said the Chief Secretary assured that additional funds would be provided to the allied hospitals and the RMC has applied for the same.
He added that the RMC has already requested hospitals including Cantonment General Hospital and Social Security Hospital to provide space for accommodating dengue fever patients if required. We have also informed the Chief Secretary that it is hardly possible for the allied hospitals to keep over 400 dengue fever patients in wards, he said.