PESHAWAR, May 7: The NWFP health department has decided to upgrade the rural health centre at Takhtbai as Tehsil Headquarters Hospital at a cost of Rs100 million to meet the demands of the people of the area. This was disclosed at a meeting here on Saturday which was attended among others by health minister Inayatullah Khan.

The meeting decided to establish CCU, ICU, gynae, children healthcare, ENT, surgical, medical and other general wards in this hospital to make it a well-equipped 110-bed hospital.

NWFP Food Minister Fazle Rabbani, who hails from the same constituency, thanked Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, Health Minister Inayaullah Khan and other concerned authorities for this generous step.

He hoped that construction of the THQ Hospital would be completed at the earliest.

Aids Ward: The NWFP health department has decided to establish an anti-retroviral therapy ward for Aids patients.

“The eight-bed ward will be established at the Hayatabad Medical Complex. A doctor and a nurse were sent on April 18 to India for eight-week training at the Tata Institute of HIV/Aids Research,” said the deputy manger of the provincial HIV/Aids Control Programme, Dr Bilal Ahmad.

He said drugs for Aids patients, which were recently registered by the government, would be available in the ward. He said the unit would operate under the supervision of the professor of medical ward and a senior registrar with a nurse would run it.

He said there were 57 Aids and 385 HIV positive patients in the NWFP, every seventh of them a woman.

“The patients admitted to the ward will get screening and counselling services free of cost,” he said. He said a sociologist had been recruited for the pre- and post-screening counselling.

He said two medical professionals each from the four provinces, Azad Kashmir and Islamabad had proceeded for training and similar wards would be established in all those regions.