Allied hospitals receive normal burden of patients on Eid days

Rawalpindi : The three teaching hospitals in town have not received any extraordinary burden of patients on Eid days from Wednesday to Saturday though the number of cases of road traffic accidents (RTA) was a little higher as compared to routine particularly on ‘Chand raat’ and the three days of Eidul Fitr.

Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that the number of trauma cases was higher from ‘Chand raat’ to the third day of Eid mainly because of RTAs involving wheelie activity in town. The allied hospitals including Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and District Headquarters Hospital, however, did not receive any extraordinary burden of patients during Eid holidays though a good number of patients had to suffer mainly because of repair and maintenance work at the HFH.

It is important that the HFH has been operating its accident and emergency department only for cases of Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department and Paediatrics Department due to the ongoing repair work at the hospital. The three allied hospitals have not been operating their outpatient departments since Wednesday due to Eid holidays and only emergency departments of the hospitals would be operational to receive new cases till Sunday, today.

The allied hospitals have been receiving routine cases from Wednesday onwards as no untoward incident or a bigger emergency was reported in this region of country during the Eid holidays, , said Principal Rawalpindi Medical College and In-charge Allied Hospitals Professor Dr. Jahangir Sarwar Khan while talking to ‘The News’.

He added that none of the allied hospitals’ departments received an extraordinary burden of patients on Eid days and as a whole, the functioning of the accident and emergency departments can be termed as smooth.

Data reveals that the BBH emergency department received a little extra burden of patients on Eid days as compared to the number of patients reported in routine. The main reason behind it is that most of the private healthcare facilities including private clinics were not operating during the holidays.

There were few complaints of patients regarding delay in treatment at the emergency departments of the allied hospitals though the majority of patients reaching the three teaching hospitals along with Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Transplantation and Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology remained satisfied as no resentment was recorded by the patients.

It is important that well over 50 per cent of the total patients who reached emergency departments of the allied hospitals in the last four days were given treatment by the medical units, around 20 to 30 per cent by the surgical units and nearly 20 per cent at gynaecology and paediatrics departments.

Professor Jahangir said he was satisfied with the quality of services provided to the patients during Eid holidays. Each and every patient visiting the allied hospitals is being accommodated properly, he said.