Covid-19 wards in Peshawar filling up fast

Officials say ICUs are already full to the brim

PESHAWAR:

The two major tertiary care hospitals of the provincial capital are fast running out of space in their novel coronavirus (Covid-19) wards during a second wave of the pandemic.

As a result, both hospitals have been referring their patients to the third tertiary care hospital in the city.

At the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) wards are almost full.

In KTH, of the 106 beds placed in the Covid-19 ward, 95 beds are currently occupied.

Of these, sources said three patients are on ventilators and another 17 others are receiving supplemental oxygen.

Sources added that while they have a few beds available, a shortage of oxygen means they cannot accept patients who are displaying severe symptoms of the virus.

Similarly, in HMC, of the 150 beds dedicated for the Covid-19 ward there, 120 are occupied by patients.

Of these, 30 patients are on ventilators or in the intensive care unit (ICU). All of the beds in the isolation ward which are equipped with oxygen are currently occupied.

Meanwhile, at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), where both KTH and HMC have referred patients, there are 230 beds placed in the Covid-19 ward. Of these, 132 are currently available.

However, sources said that all beds in LRH’s ICUs and high dependency units (HDUs) are currently occupied.

“In the ICU, nine out of the ten beds are already occupied while in the HDUs, 24 of the 31 beds are occupied,” claimed the sources.

Moreover, of the 21 private rooms available, 18 are currently occupied.

“The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has already directed the provincial health department to allocate half of all beds for Covid-19 patients,” a hospital official said, adding that he should not be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Moreover, the official said that district hospitals have also been directed to allocate around 30 per cent of their beds for Covid-19 patients.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2020.