GUJRAT: The local administration has made the field hospital fully functional by shifting most of the Covid-19 patients to it from the isolation ward of the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital (ABSTH).

The field hospital was established at the Sports Gymnasium in the wake of rising number of infected patients, mainly the overseas Pakistanis.

Gujrat’s field hospital is the second of its nature in Punjab, the first one is in the Expo Centre in Lahore.

Gujrat Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Jameel, who had made all the arrangements of the field hospital, said the authorities had shifted all the male and young patients to the hospital fully equipped with the latest health facilities required for such patients, including ventilators. However, women, children and the patients with serious conditions would be kept in the ABSTH that was earlier housing all the patients.

Mr Jameel said the Gujrat administration had risen to the occasion in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak with its recent achievement of setting up the state-of-the-art 200 bed field hospital within just five days. He added that the health facility had the capacity for 50 more beds in case of any emergency.

The field hospital has an ICU unit with 20 beds and ventilators while security cameras have also been installed and a standby power generator has been provided to it.

Gujranwala Commissioner Gulzar Shah and RPO Riaz Nazeer Gara visited the field hospital facility twice and applauded the measures taken by the administration which are now being dubbed as the ‘Gujrat model’.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2020