Emergency declared in Peshawar hospitals

Emergency declared in Peshawar hospitals


By Mushtaq Yusufzai
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=65099
PESHAWAR: Fearing more terrorism incidents across the Frontier province, the Health Department on Thursday declared emergency at the teaching hospitals of the provincial metropolis and devised a massive healthcare plan in case of any disaster.
Chief executives of the three teaching hospitals — Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) — have been directed by the Health Department to make extra arrangements for an emergency.
Acting upon the directive, the administration of the three hospitals announced red alert in their respective facilities putting all the doctors and paramedical staff on call. Routine leaves of the doctors were also cancelled except the summer vacation of teaching staff.
Talking to The News, NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan said that terrorism incidents were on the rise in the province, therefore, hospitals should be ready round the clock for meeting any emergency. “We have already released an amount of Rs30 million for emergency medicines and equipment to LRH, as it is the biggest hospital of the province having heavy burden of patients,” he said.
LRH Chief Executive Prof Dr Hafizullah said a meeting was convened soon after the directives of the provincial government, wherein a strategy was discussed as how to deal with an emergency situation. He said that heads of all the relevant departments attended the meeting and were assigned separate tasks.
“We have spared 35 beds for trauma and 30 for casualty, while eight operation theatres in neuro surgery and 11 at surgical unit are fully equipped for emergency,” he said.