Oxygen beds intervention being made in hospitals: NDMA

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal has said that as per direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, intervention of oxygen beds is being made in hospitals all over Pakistan, and in Lahore, 330 oxygen beds had already been entered into operational phase.

Talking to the media at King Edward Medical University (KEMU) in Lahore on Wednesday, he mentioned that such interventions also being made in other big cities such as Sialkot, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Multan in the second phase. In addition to this, he said, there was also a plan to set up ICUs (Intensive Care Units) in small cities of Punjab including Jehlum, Khushab, and DG Khan or Rajanpur.

Such ICUs are also being established in small cities of other provinces, he asserted.

Lt-Gen Afzal said that intervention of 500 beds was being made in hospitals of Karachi, which is in final stage; 70 beds are being made operational in Rawalpindi; 60 beds in three cities of Azad Jammu and Kahshmir (AJK) and 100 beds in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).

He continued that 200 beds have been made operational in Quetta yesterday; 330 beds in Lahore and 320 beds were operational in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

In the first phase, he said, around 1,434 beds had been operational and out of these, 20 per cent beds were with ventilator facility; 40 per cent with by-pipe and remaining 40 per cent were for the patients needing low-pressure oxygen.

The NDMA chairman also said that interventions are being made in around 25 hospitals of the country,. “I hope, we will make operational 2,500 beds having oxygen and other related equipment at various places of the country by the end of this month.”

The NDMA, he said, also facilitating the doctors and paramedical staff by providing them with protective kits and testing equipment etc.

Lt-Gen Afzal highly appreciated the services of doctors and paramedical staff, terming them as frontline fighters in the war against Covid-19 pandemic.

He also paid homage to all those doctors and paramedics who sacrificed their lives to cure their countrymen, children, brothers and sisters. They are fighting out coronavirus very effectively, and we are successful in this war, he added.