SARWAR AWAN
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that the doctors, nurses and other medical staff were in the frontline of battle against Corona virus and they would be provided with the necessary protective gear to ensure their safety and health. The Prime Minister said this while inaugurating the up-gradation of the 500-bed hospital with modern medical facilities, a project of Cantonment General Hospital, Rawalpindi. The Premier addressing the gathering said, “Government stands by the medical staff including doctors and will provide them full protection in the fight against Covid-19. He said the trend of the pandemic in Pakistan will become clearer in a matter of one week. However, he expressed satisfaction that Pakistan has not witnessed the sort of escalation of cases as has been seen in the western countries. The prime minister said the protective gear would be provided on priority to those working at the intensive care units and dealing patients suffering from contagious diseases. He said the decision was taken by the Command and Control Centre to ensure provision of shielding material to the front line medical staff for their own safety. “We will fully support you including doctors, nurses and paramedic staff, and the nation acknowledges your efforts,” he said. Imran Khan said the government started taking preventive measures in the country since the first coronavirus case had surfaced in China in January, besides working on a mechanism to deal with the looming challenge. The prime minister along with Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, MNA Amir Mehmood Kiani and the CGH officials visited different sections of the hospital, including operation theatres, CT scan area and the Corona ICU. The Premier was told that the hospital had constituted a Corona Response Team with a specific plan to deal with the emergency. The PM was briefed that a separate ICU and isolation ward had been setm up, besides seven dispensaries in slum areas to detect infectious disease among the residents. The prime minister was also apprised that operation theatres had the facility of live telecast of surgeries, usually for the purpose of distant advisory opinion from physicians and as educational activity for medical students. APP adds: CGH Administrator Brig (retd) Imran ul Haq told that upgradation of the hospital would cater for the 1.5 million population of Rawalpindi to provide them treatment facilities for different diseases. The Corona ICU had 30 beds, while a 50-bed separate Corona Ward comprising 25 beds each for male and female patients, had been made operational, he said. He mentioned that the renovation of hospital also included a separate facility for children coming for routine vaccination to protect them from contracting diseases. The CGH Health Consultant Col (Retd) Shoaib said a controlled environment with regulation of filtered air was maintained in ICUs, with beds equipped with air-curtain patient isolators. CGH Chief Engineer Atiq ur Rehman apprised that the floors of wards had been lined with anti-microbial sheet to control potential sources of germs and bacteria
