PESHAWAR: Police and Services Hospital Peshawar, which served as the only dedicated hospital for Covid-19 patients in the country, has played an important role in managing the coronavirus patients, according to experts.

Senior health officials and World Health Organisation have expressed satisfaction over the performance of the hospital and want to use it a focal point in case of medical emergencies in future.

The hospital was established before partition and called Civil Surgeon Hospital then. It remained a dedicated coronavirus centre from February 3, 2020 to August 13, 2020 and screened 11,303 suspected patients of whom 1,709 turned positive.

It earned name for itself for being the lone dedicated hospital throughout the country that collected swabs and provided treatment when there was a general fear among the health workers everywhere.

Experts laud country’s only dedicated hospital for Covid-19 patients

Medical specialist Dr Asif Izhar, who led the efforts along with medical superintendent, said that a total of 32 staffers also got infected during the pandemic but there was no looking back and all the 297 its workers including doctors, nurses, paramedics and Class-IV employees worked in three shifts to deal with the situation.

He said that their staff visited airports, Chief Minister Secretariat, Governor’s House and Civil Secretariat to examine suspected patients and take swabs from them. He said that in the early days, they imparted training to all staff including Class-IV employees and sweepers to ensure better management and corona waste management, because it was a big threat. No professional help was sought from other hospitals, he added.

“We admitted 203 patients and referred 25 serious ones to the medical teaching institutions for intensive care services. During the six-month convid-19 operations, we recorded three deaths,” said Dr Asif.

He said that they pioneered Covid-19 screening as suspected people were referred from all MTIs and swabs were collected and sent to Public Health Reference Laboratory at Khyber Medical University. Later in June, HMC and KTH got their own laboratories and started swab collection, he added.

Dr Asif said that the initial days were difficult but staff was given on-job training. Before onset of Covid-19, the hospital received 700 patients on average per day for specialised medical, surgical, gynae, eye, ENT, chest, skin, children, cardiology, radiology and dentistry services. It was re-opened last week for general patients and at the moment patients were seen at OPD only, he added.

“Presently, we are not starting surgeries and admission, keeping in view that if Covid-19 flares up again. So, we are waiting,” said Dr Asif.

He said that their dedicated efforts and team work proved that they could deal with any medical emergency in the province.

Dr Asif was not disappointed by lack of appreciation by the government but said that he took pride that it was proven to everyone that the hospital could be used as focal point for any public health emergency in the province.

The hospital didn’t receive any special funds or risk allowance for the staffers, who all were involved in Covid-19 work.

He said that originally they had 60 beds but to ensure social distancing, they admitted 30 Covid-19 patients.

The patients along with their attendants received three meals per day that were provided in collaboration with the Al Khidmat Foundation during the pandemic, he added.

“Our Covid-19 management mechanism was in line with the guidelines of the WHO and National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad. Our hospital was visited thrice by NIH team, twice by WHO team and once by Dr Palitha Mahipala, the contry representative of WHO, because it was a unique facility in the country,” said Dr Asif.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2020