Construction work at New Block of HFH yet to be finalised

Rawalpindi:The construction work at the New Block of Holy Family Hospital could not be completed as yet while according to the HFH administration, the New Block was supposed to be handed over to the hospital till February 22 this year.

Initially, the Communication and Works Department of the Government of Punjab conveyed the hospital administration that the repair and maintenance work at the HFH would be finalised till February 22 however later, the hospital administration was informed that the completion of work would take at least another five weeks and the new block of the hospital would be handed over to the hospital till March 31 this year, said Medical Superintendent at HFH Dr. Ijaz Butt while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday. It is important that the HFH, the biggest public sector tertiary care hospital in Rawalpindi division, had stopped receiving patients in the third week of October last year due to maintenance and repair work and at that time, it was announced that the revamping of the hospital would take three to four months.

The HFH was operating with over 1200 beds before its closure in October last year and it was providing healthcare services to well over 60000 patients at its outpatient department, emergency department and in wards every month. After the closure of the HFH, its departments were shifted to Benazir Bhutto Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital, Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Transplantation and Red Crescent Hospital however thousands of patients have been suffering badly for months even after relocation of the HFH departments. Dr. Butt said the construction work on two floors of the new block has been completed however a lot of work is yet to be done to make the new block operational for receiving and facilitating patients. It is not possible for us to accommodate patients in an under construction building and we have asked the C&W Department to hand over the building to the hospital after completion, he added.

It is worth mentioning here that only two departments of the HFH – Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department and Paediatrics Department – have been made operational in the Old Block of the hospital in February.

Superintending Engineer at C&W Department Syed Arshad who is supervising the repair and maintenance work at the HFH, when contacted by ‘The News’ on Tuesday, said the construction work at the New Block of the hospital would be finalized within the next four to five weeks and the new block would be handed over to the Rawalpindi Medical College and Allied Hospitals administration till May 15.

He added the finalization of the work at the hospital has been delayed a little mainly because of some additional jobs added to the already planned revamping job. Earlier, it was planned that a single system would be installed for distribution of medical gases in wards and intensive care units however, later the hospital administration asked that there would be an additional distribution system for making medical gases available in all departments, he said.

Syed Arshad said the construction work has not been slowed down at the HFH, instead the working on additional jobs added to the earlier plan has been taking time. I hope that the hospital will be able to resume services at its new block by the mid of May, he said.