Allied hospitals return to normalcy

Rawalpindi : Two of the three allied hospitals in town including Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) have returned to normalcy on Tuesday as the two hospitals started services as per routine in all their existing departments after the number of new COVID-19 patients has almost diminished in Rawalpindi district.

In a meeting of hospitals’ chiefs held on video link with the high-ups in Punjab health ministry, it has been decided that Corona Management Centre established at the under construction Rawal­pindi Institute of Urology some five months back would exclusively deal with COVID-19 suspects and patients from now onwards.

It has also been decided that BBH and HFH would start working as per routine and we have started operating all our departments including ENT and Eye departments from Tuesday, said Medical Superintendent at BBH Dr. Rafiq Ahmed while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.

He added that the BBH has already been providing outpatients department services in a number of departments though Eye, ENT and Dermatology departments were not operating as per routine to avoid spread of coronavirus illness. From today, we have started functioning in all existing departments of the hospital as per routine, he said.

It is important that after huge influx of COVID-19 patients at the end of May, BBH that had been designated as the specialized healthcare facility by the Punjab government to deal with COVID-19 cases in northern part of the country in the beginning of February was converted into COVID-19 Management Hospital and the hospital administration was asked to exclusively manage COVID-19 patients in the beginning of June.

To avoid spread of corona virus, the BBH had to suspend its routine outpatient department services in certain departments and had to shift a number of indoor patients to the other teaching hospitals in town including HFH and District Headquarters Hospital however the admitted patients who could not be shifted to other hospitals due to their condition continued to receive treatment at the BBH.

The HFH had allocated limited number of beds for management of COVID-19 patients though the arrangement disturbed functioning in some departments.

Dr. Rafiq explained that from now onwards, the suspected and confirmed patients of COVID-19 reaching allied hospitals would be referred to CMC at RIU for management and the allied hospitals would provide services to patients in all departments as per routine.