'176 beds added in K-P hospitals in 10 days'

K-P de-facto health minister Taimur Jhagra says 19 ventilators also provided to various state-run hospitals

PESHAWAR: The provincial health minister has said that owing to the prevailing coronavirus situation, the government has added 176 beds to the public hospitals in the past 10 days.

Among these, 32 beds were for intensive care units and 144 were for high-dependency units, said K-P Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra on Wednesday.

“We have arranged 19 ventilators,” he said adding that the ministry has provided five beds in ICU of Hayatabad Medical Complex and 36 high dependency beds at in Khyber Teaching Hospital.

Meanwhile, to facilitate the districts and shifting the burden away from the three largest tertiary health facilities of the province, the K-P health ministry has provided eight ventilators to Charsadda District Headquarters Hospital and 32 high dependency unit beds to Razzar Hospital in the same district, Jhagra said.

“We have provided 25 hospital beds in Swat district where more deaths and patients have been recorded, he said. Moreover, in Swabi and Nowshera, the provincial government provided 20 high dependency beds each.

While commenting on the meeting with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) officials, Jhagra said they have assured the provincial government of technical assistance to establish coronavirus treatment centre in Peshawar Institute of Cardiology.

The minister said that the provincial government is working hard to provide more 1,000 critical care unit and high dependency unit beds in the next two months.

Meanwhile the provincial health minister expressed condolence over the death of Dr Abbas Tariq who died of coronavirus in the provincial capital.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2020.