PESHAWAR, Aug 20: The Casualty Department of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) is swarmed with patients who are not critically ill, creating extra workload on health workers, doctors told Dawn on Wednesday.

“Some 1,800 patients visit the department on a daily basis, out of which only 10 per cent happened to be critically ill while the rest are regular patients needed to be seen by doctors at the Out-Patient Department (OPD) in the morning shift,” said casualty medical officer at the Lady Reading Hospital.

According to him, the casualty department was meant to look after the severely ill patients, but the condition of most of the patients who visit the department was not serious.

 The overflow of the Out-Patient Department patients into the emergency ward had  over-burdened the staffers who were finding it extremely hard to treat patients with traumas, roadside accidents, firearm injuries and delivery cases, he said.

He said that there were three CMOs and two nurses in the ward but looking after 1,800 patients on a daily basis was a hassle as only 200 patients were qualified to be treated as casualty patients.

The patients are being provided with free of cost drips, injections and X-Ray facility in the emergency ward which is the reason why such a high number of OPD patients were visiting the casualty ward of the hospital.

“There is a need to decentralize health facilities and district hospitals should be equipped with better equipments so that patients would not go to big hospitals in the city to undergo treatment of minor injuries and diseases,” a doctor said.