Punjab planning new health facilities for Pindi: minister

BBH, HFH to get funds for upgrading paediatric, gynaecology wards

RAWALPINDI: With the existing health facilities in the garrison city groaning under the weight of the city’s fast-rising population, the provincial government is planning to construct new healthcare facilities.

This was disclosed by Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Wednesday as she chaired a meeting at the Rawalpindi Institute of Kidney and Liver Transplant (RIKUT).

During the meeting, held to review progress made on different health projects, Dr Rashid directed the relevant officers to ensure the prompt completion of public healthcare facilities across Punjab.

Terming the maternal mortality rate in the province as too high - particularly in rural areas, Dr Rashid said that the construction of five new mother and child hospitals in different cities of the province will help to bring down this rate.

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Reiterating that the incumbent government is paying special attention to the development of new healthcare facilities in the province, she claimed that past regimes had overlooked this aspect of healthcare.

“The net of public healthcare was not expanded in accordance with the growth in Punjab’s population,” she said.

BBH, HFH development schemes

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has formally approved two development projects for the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and the Holy Family Hospital (HFH).

The schemes, worth Rs730.5 million, include the construction of a new paediatric ward in BBH and the upgrade of the existing pediatric and gynaecology wards in HFH.

In this regard, BBH Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr Rafique Ahmed told The Express Tribune that the provincial government would give Rs350.5 million to the tertiary care hospital for improving the paediatric ward in the upcoming financial year 2020-21.

Similarly, HFH will receive Rs180 million to procure new equipment for revamping its paediatric and gynaecology wards. The hospital is expected to get the remaining tranche of Rs200 million later in the financial year, he said.

Dr Rafique added that the procurement of modern equipment will drastically improve the provision of healthcare services to women and children at the hospital. He further said that the uplift schemes also aim to enhance the capacity of both wards.

The MS added that they were determined to improve overall facilities at these medical facilities, including making all of the wards infection-free as it will shorten the patients’ recovery time after completing medical procedures.

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Moreover, HFH MS Dr Shehzad Ahmed termed the project to upgrade paediatric and gynaecology wards as important and much-needed.

Apart from modern equipment, Dr Shehzad said that the hospital will procure new beds, electro-medical equipment and ventilators for the two wards.

Overburdened 

The allied hospitals of BBH, HFH and the District Headquarters (DHQ) hospital have combined 2,280 beds. HFH has the most beds with 970, followed by BBH with 840 beds and then DHQ with 470 beds.

Owing to the limited bed space and the large influx of patients these hospitals receive from Rawalpindi division and adjoining areas such as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir meant that many patients have to wait their turn to be admitted. Many important surgical operations were also delayed by as much as a year.