Govt springs into action to boost capacity of hospitals.

ISLAMABAD: The government has sprung into action to build the capacity of health care facilities across country amid fast increasing cases of coronavirus.

The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) has decided to provide 1,000 oxygenated beds for capacity building and enhancement of critical health care system in major cities of the country by end of June. The NCOC will also ensure fast-track approval for enhancing health care capacity particularly critical healthcare. The procurement plan in this regard has already been put in place.

In context with Covid-19, the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) has constructed Isolation Hospital and Infectious Treatment Centre (IHITC) in Islamabad on behalf of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and National Institute of Health (NIH) on turnkey basis. The 250-bed prefabricated state-of-the-art hospital will be used to treat not only coronavirus infected patients under best available equipment and medication but also be available for treatment of other infectious diseases. Construction work on the project will be completed within 35 days. The IHITC Islamabad consists of five wards having single rooms and an intensive care unit (ICU) each, two general wards, emergency department, diagnostics, radiology and pathology laboratory, besides a mortuary and incinerator. It has specialized HVAC (heating, ventilation & air conditioning) and sewerage system, CCTV, intercom, HIMS (health information management system) and LIMS (laboratory information management system), fire and smoke detection system, RO plant, kitchen, doctors' accommodation and a mosque are part of this wonderful facility.

The NCOC, through NDMA, has also dispatched 52 ventilators which have already been received by Sindh government. Another tranche of 50 additional vents will delivered in next 48-72 hours to meet additional and contingency requirements of the province. Human resource is being trained for operationalization of the beds. Enhancing of beds capacity in Mardan, Noshera, Swabi and Peshawar hospitals is also on the cards.

In Punjab, 72 additional vents have been added in the last one week. A detailed contingency plan is in place for procuring additional beds for Covid-19 patients. The additional beds will be provided by third week of June.

In Balochistan, 10 ventilators have already been Installed. The province is working on human resource to meet additional requirements. There is no pressure on health care system in...