10,000-bed field hospitals to be set up across Sindh

CM says govt must prepare for increasing patients as testing capacity rises

KARACHI: Preparing for the worst as the pandemic tally rises, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has ordered the establishment of 10,000-bed field hospitals across the province.

Meanwhile, the provincial government has set up 185-bed critical care units (CCUs) equipped with ventilators in different hospitals.

Speaking at a meeting at the CM House of Friday, Shah said that the number of coronavirus patients was increasing as the province’s test capacity had been boosted. As a result, he stated, the Sindh government had to prepare to set up field hospitals in every district.



Upon being informed that a newly-constructed school in Tando Muhammad Khan had the capacity to house at least 50 patients, he directed the Sindh education department to hand the building over to be used as a field hospital, which is to be set up within a week.

A similar 100-bed unit is to be set up in Matiari, while in Tando Allahyar, a newly-built hospital building is to be used as a field hospital, per the CM’s approval.

Shah further directed Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho to identify vacant or new government buildings and grounds where isolation centres could be set up for coronavirus patients, while also telling her to arrange for medical and paramedical staff as well as medicines for the field hospitals.



Meanwhile, Dr Pechuho told the CM that CCUs with ventilators and a total capacity of 185 beds had been set up in different hospitals in the provinces. In Karachi, these hospitals include Dow University Hospital’s Ojha campus, Indus Hospital, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Trauma Centre, Lyari General Hospital and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. The CCUs are also present in 14 other hospitals in other districts of the province.