Two crucial projects for BBH likely to get nod

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi is expected to approve the construction of two mega projects of Benazir Bhutto General Hospital, Rawalpindi, which have been awaiting approval for over a decade, sources said on Tuesday.

Given the steady rise in the number of patients in the Benazir Bhutto General Hospital, the planning for the construction of the two mega projects including the modern trauma centre and the largest parking plaza has been completed.

The sources said these mega projects have been pending since 2008 due to which the patients are facing massive problems in the face of a shortage of operation theatres, limited treatment facilities for the patients of trauma and non-availability of the latest pathology laboratory and radiology centre in the hospital.

The sources claimed that special presentations on both of these significant projects will now be given to the Punjab CM upon his arrival at the hospital with a clear possibility of their approval.

After the martyrdom of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, the Rawalpindi General Hospital was named after the former premier by the federal and the Punjab governments in 2008.

Subsequently, the two proposed projects were kept under consideration from 2008 to 2018 as they were considered significant for the hospital. However, despite numerous presentations and being included in the annual development programme, no progress could be made on these most important projects.

A limited emergency department is functioning in the hospital with inadequate facilities compared to the extraordinary number of accident cases that come to the hospital.

The presence of a state-of-the-art trauma centre and an operation complex in which six to seven operation theatres are available simultaneously for accident patients from across the district is essential so that the patient brought to the trauma centre after the accident can get all the latest treatment facilities on time.

Experts say that the shorter response time and accurate and prompt treatment in a modern trauma centre can also reduce the mortality rate.

On the other hand, the hospital is currently in need of a modern diagnostic complex and spacious parking, for which underground parking will be established on the land available in the hospital and on the upper floor a modern pathology laboratory radiology centre will be established inside the modern diagnostic complex.

Sources said that the hospital's expansive park and existing emergency department site will be utilised for these projects. The wards will be expanded in the vacated parts of the buildings after the operation theatres, pathology laboratory and radiology centre in the hospital building are shifted to the new buildings, they added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2022.