Peshawar's Hayatabad hospital forced to turn COVID-19 patients away over shortage of beds
by Web Desk
PESHAWAR: As COVID-19 cases surge across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the country, the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) has stopped admitting new coronavirus patients owing to a shortage of beds and equipment for treatment.
According to a report in Dawn, the spokesperson for the complex said that the hospital administration has started referring COVID-19 patients to other hospitals as wards dedicated to treating the infection had filled to their maximum capacity.
"We are not accepting new or referred patients at the moment as we are facing a shortage of beds and other facilities," HMC spokesperson Toueed Zulfiqar was quoted by Dawn as saying.
The HMC has seen a rise in COVID-19 patients admitting themselves for treatment as the complex is the only one offering plasma therapy for the infection.
"For the past two weeks our patient inflow has increased almost three to four times," he said, adding that patients were seeking out the hospital as it was the only one in the province offering plasma therapy.
As per Zulfiqar, the isolation ward for coronavirus patients has a total of 90 beds out of which 85 have been occupied.
However, the HMC spokesperson said that the hospital was trying to increase beds in its facility. "Beds are not a big issue, but we have to provide other facilities such as ventilators, oxygen etc.," he said.
Referring to the equipment, he said coronavirus patients required one to two oxygen cylinders on a daily basis. "If there is a further increase in the number of patients, there may be a shortage of oxygen."
A press release of the HMC had stated that 2,571 patients had visited the hospital during the recent Eid holidays. Zulfiqar said that due to an influx of patients, the hospital could not admit everyone referred to it.
Syeda Aliya, spokesperson fo the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) said that the hospital had two isolation units for coronavirus patients. A total of 55 beds were had been arranged for COVID-19 patients while 30 were reserved for hospital staff.
Talking about the current state of affairs, Aliya said that 40 patients, including five staffers, were undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at the hospital. She said that out of a total of 56 ventilators in the hospital, 25 had been allocated for coronavirus patients.
The Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) said that the hospital was not facing a shortage of beds as of yet. The hospital's Dean Professor Abdul Latif Khan said that out of the 220 beds in the complex, only 32 were occupied by COVID-19 patients.
"Only 10 of these patients have tested positive for the virus while the remaining are suspected patients," he said, disclosing that 22 suspected patients were being kept in the ICU.
Khan said that all safety precautions for doctors were being taken by the hospital. He urged doctors and healthcare professionals to cooperate with hospital management. Khan expressed the hope that more beds can be arranged if coronavirus patients increase as the days progress.
At the Police Services Hospital Deputy Medical Superintendent, Dr Aurangzeb said that only six beds out of a total of 30 reserved for coronavirus patients were occupied.
"The remaining beds are for those patients who are showing serious symptoms," he added.
Though Khyber Pakhtunkhwa trails behind Sindh and Punjab when it comes to confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the province leads when it comes to the death tally.
As on May 29, more than 9,060 cases of the virus have been confirmed and the province has reported 445 deaths, the most in Pakistan.