SAHIWAL: The Punjab government has given 970 and 180 new beds to the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital and Sahiwal Institute of Cardiology, respectively, under a plan to upgrade the health infrastructure.

Earlier, the hospital bed capacity was 377 which had now reached 1327.

Prof Dr Imran Hasan, Principal, SMC told Dawn that the Institute of Cardiology beds were approved separately.

He said the new beds were provided by the Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Department (SH&MED).

Dawn learnt from sources the SHMED had provided 34,067 new beds to improve the capacity of all tertiary care hospitals in Punjab.

They were provided to 55 public health facility centers that come under the major heads of general, cardiac, children, dental, mother & child hospitals and dental institutes. Of the total beds, 2484, 1813, 1633 and 1609 were provided to Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Nishtar Hospital Multan, Allied Hospital Faislabad and Bahwal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur.

Forty per cent of the beds have been given to Lahore city hospitals and 21 per cent to 12 public health facilities of South Punjab districts, including Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur and DG Khan.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2024