PESHAWAR: Health department decided to outsource services at Covid-19 Hospital Nishartabad to a private organisation as the province recorded 304 new cases and two deaths due to the pandemic on Monday.

A report of health department said that Covid-19 positivity rate in Peshawar rose to 24 per cent during the last 24 hours. It said that weekly infectivity level was 19 per cent.

Tally of infected persons in the province reached 185,683 and fatalities reached 5,977. Two persons died of the virus in Peshawar on Monday.

The newly-diagnosed coronavirus patients also included 40 Omicron variant, making total count of people infected with new variant 304 in the province. Of these, 152 cases have been reported in Peshawar where district administration has enforced smart lockdowns in hotspots of the pandemic including Hayatabad, Phandu, Hazar Khwani roads and Gulbahar No.4 besides Dalazak and Warsak roads.

KP records two deaths, 304 new cases

The lockdown will come into force from 4pm on Tuesday till further order, according to press release said. Owing to upsurge in cases, especially in Peshawar, health department has decided to continue services at Nishtarabad.

Medical Emergency Resilience Foundation, a private organisation, established Covid-19 Hospital Nishtarabad in 2020 to coup with the increasing coronavirus cases in Peshawar. The contract with the organisation ends in March 9 due to which the health department decided to continue Covid-19 uninterrupted services in the hospital through bidding process.

The department, in an effort to find beds due to surging hospitalisation during first wave of the pandemic, launched Covid-19 hospital at the building originally built to house Institute of Hepatology.

Officials said that private parties were asked to submit their interest in running the 100-bed hospital in collaboration with health department. They said that the partner organisation would be working as per government law.

The government has already outsourced 19 health facilities in the province to improve healthcare services in collaboration with private contracting partners. Services including regional blood centres and chain management system of medicines were being in pipeline to be handed over to non-government organisations after completion of due process, officials said.

“Nishartabad Hospital has 50-bed isolation ward, 30-bed high dependency unit and 20-bed intensive care unit where 1,525 Covid-19 patients have been managed so far,” they said.

They said that they needed quality Covid-19 services such as isolation, HDU and ICU for coronavirus patients, vaccination services for the community through killed personnel, provision of essential medicines and functional equipment.

They said that the partner party would also ensure availability of public health laboratory, diagnostic services, waste management, infection prevention and control, referral linkages with other hospitals and all necessary support services.

The hospital has also been providing Covid-19 testing and psychological services to the patients and their relatives and close contacts with more than 100 staff. The government will supply medicines to the facility while the organisation, to be selected, will be required to deploy 191 staffers including doctors, nurses and other employees there to be able to cope with patients in case of spike in Covid-19 cases.

Officials said that the facility, being run through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Human Investment Capital Project, would be given to a private organisation through a competitive process to select the best available party.

They said that the private party would work under government’s supervision during one-year of the contract. “Had we not outsourced the facility, it would have been closed,” they added.

They said that the initiative was meant to enhance coverage and access to essential health services, especially for the poor and vulnerable, to lessen burden of disease, improved human resource management, governance, regulation and accountability in addition to increased health financing for efficient service delivery and financial risk protection for the people.

“World Bank is sponsoring it,” they said.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2022