ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: The health ministry urgently requires Rs100 million to continue its ongoing medical relief activities and for running 28 field hospitals in the earthquake-affected areas of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP and the hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
“A summary for the special grant of Rs100 million will be moved soon after Eid,” Health Secretary Anwar Mehmood told Dawn on Thursday.
The amount is in addition to the special grant of Rs50 million earlier released on the instructions of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for the relief work soon after the October 8 earthquake.
We need extra cash to meet day-to-day requirements since the Rs50 million grant has already been exhausted on purchasing emergency and other supplies for prompt medical attention to the injured who continued to pour into the local hospitals during the initial days after the quake, the secretary said.
Had the ministry not received emergency medical supplies and other contributions from different pharmaceutical companies, organizations, volunteers and private donors, our requirement would have been much higher, he said, adding that this spirit of sharing and giving should also continue in future to keep up the momentum.
Meanwhile, a team of Pakistani doctors is leaving for Garhi Habibullah (AJK) on Friday to take over the charge of a 40-bed Iranian-field hospital as the Iranian team, which had rushed to Pakistan in the aftermath of the disaster, is returning back.
The field hospital is equipped with mobile operation theatres, X-ray facilities and other diagnostic laboratories.
Referring to the basic health units (BHUs) the entire infrastructure of which had completely collapsed both in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP in the earthquake, the secretary said the health ministry had already discussed with the AJK and NWFP governments to temporarily revive the units through makeshift arrangements. This will help in providing basic medical care to the people of the affected areas.
Meanwhile, AJK Chief Coordinator Dr Jehanzeb Khan Orakzai told Dawn that the crisis management centre of the health ministry established in the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), Muzaffarabad, had attended 15,168 patients since October 10 and conducted 5,030 minor procedures of trauma, 269 major orthopaedic surgeries, 23 general surgeries while 43 deliveries had taken place since then.
Though the building of the hospital is intact, there was little equipment or beds in the hospital to make it fully functional.
Soon after activating the centre, he explained, the existing facilities were upgraded by establishing 24-hour emergency services with availability of all medicines while system of registration of patients was introduced, beds were enhanced to 350 from 68 and three new wards were set up for male and female patients besides a tent ward.
Likewise, Dr Orakzai said, a six-bed dialysis unit was also set up in addition to intensive care unit, operation theatre, labour room and gynaecology operation theatre and gynae ward, 24- hour radiology services including ultrasound, ECG services, pathology laboratory services, portable nebulizers, blood transfusion services, 24-hour ambulance services in collaboration with Edhi, outdoor (field) toilet facilities for patients, two tent villages for post-operation patients and their attendants (200 bed) while a system of hospital waste disposal was initiated.
Likewise a complete orthopaedic theatre and operation theatre table and two new anaesthesia machines for operation theatres have been handed over to the management of AIMS.
Meanwhile, National Institute of Health Executive Director K.A Karamat said till October 30, 273,348 children had been vaccinated against measles while 20,516 against tetanus in the NWFP.
Likewise, 50,595 children in Azad Kashmir were vaccinated against tetanus and 35,413 against measles by special teams dispatched by the NIH.
According to the latest update, civil hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have so far attended 16,088 patients of which 3,575 are still admitted to different hospitals.
