RAWALPINDI: Despite directives issued by the district administration, three government hospitals in the city failed to establish special wards for dengue patients at the start of the spring season.

A 100-bed dengue ward was set up at the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) but the government converted it into a gynae ward last month. At Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, the administrations have not allocated separate wards for the dengue patients.

A senior official of the HFH told Dawn that the hospitals were facing some administrative issues as they had no permanent medical superintendents.

He said in the previous years, dengue wards had started working early in March. However, this year the hospital administrations seemed less interest in setting up the wards.

However, the senior the district administration official said they had asked all the hospitals to make arrangements for the dengue patients as dengue virus would spread due to heavy rains in the winter season.

He said Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Ali Randhawa had asked the health department to complete a door-to-door inspection in all the union councils to check the dengue larvae.

Though no dengue patient has been reported in any of the hospitals, the administration should complete its homework to deal with any situation, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2019