LAHORE, Oct 30: The 250-bed Children’s Hospital is currently having to accommodate 440 patients.

The project director for the hospital, Prof Saeedul Haq, made this statement while briefing reporters on the project, its objectives, achievements and failures.

Besides, he said, the hospital was having to cope with tremendous pressure on its emergency and out-patient departments that were daily receiving over 500 and 1,000 patients respectively. He said he had proposed to the Planning and Development Board to allow the hospital to expand its bed-strength to 700.

He said the hospital was also horribly understaffed. Out of 180 doctors’ posts, 105 were lying vacant when he rejoined the project as a director a couple of months ago. Same was the case with the posts of nurses and paramedics.

He claimed that the hospital had now hired around 90 doctors and a good number of nurses and paramedics on a contract basis to ease the pressure on the medical and paramedical staff.

Answering a question, he said construction of a hostel for 516 nurses would start soon on the campus. Similarly, he said, a plan was in final stages to construct a building to house the incinerator which had been rusting away in the open for over a year. He said construction of the building would start in two weeks and would cost some Rs900,000. He also said that equipment had been installed for physiotherapy of disabled children and would soon be functional.

Answering another question, he said the EEG unit had been shifted from its original site. “It cannot be brought back, as an inquiry is pending with the health department in this regard,” he added.

He said the hospital had also asked the city district government to help recover the hospital land grabbed for a Christians’ graveyard. The residents living adjacent to the hospital campus have been issued notices to close the doors they have illegally opened inside the campus.

Prof Haq said the hospital was also working on a proposal to set up a state-of-the-art burn unit.

He said the only MRI machine available in any public hospital in the province was offering the service at minimum rates. He said MRI tests were being done free of cost for all indoor patients.

Following a formal approval of the health department, he said the hospital had developed a pharmacy inside the emergency department where medicines would be sold at a 25 to 30 per cent discount.