LAHORE - The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) has instructed the private hospitals and laboratories for allocating and isolating beds, and conducting tests and reporting of the COVID-19 patients. In this regard, Chief Executive Officer PHC Dr Shuaib Khan and Deputy Commissioner Rawalpindi Captain (retired) Anwar-ul-Haq co-chaired a meeting with the private hospitals and laboratories of the Rawalpindi district regarding arrangements for diagnosis and treatment of the COVID-19 patients here on Thursday. They both underlined the need for giving complete information about the suspected cases so that patients could be traced when required by the authorities. Also, all hospitals and laboratories must transmit informations on positive and negative results and cases to the national database. It was also mentioned that preferably lab staff should take samples of the suspected cases as its very technical job. However, if a hospital has trained its staff, only then they can also take samples. CEO PHC said that there must be a smooth mechanism to transfer patients from the public sector hospitals to private and vice versa. Deputy Director PHC Dr Syed Khurram Raza is the focal person to be contacted for ensuring smooth transfer of cases.Dr Shuaib Khan has said the government can take beds from private hospitals if the public sector hospitals run short of beds. “The Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are being developed for occupying beds of private hospitals, which will be shared in due course,” he added. Representatives of the private hospitals asked for government support, especially for personal protective equipment (PPE), for their staff in case their beds would be taken over for the COVID-19 patients.