Peshawar - Managements of the three major tertiary care hospitals of the provincial capital are likely to reopen the out-patient departments (OPDs) after Eidul Azha as the hospitals say the OPDs’ closure deprived around 1.7 million people of health facilities during three months of Corona pandemic.
Speaking to The Nation, the representatives of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) said they were reviewing to reopen OPDs soon.
They said that due to closure of OPDs around 25,000 surgeries could not be performed in all three major hospitals of Peshawar while 1.7 million people could not avail treatment facility during Corona lockdown.
Spokesman for KP’s biggest public sector hospital, LRH, Muhammad Asim said before the Corona lockdown, approximately 6000 patients were visiting the hospital on a daily basis and around 120 surgeries were being performed. “Now when OPD is closed and the patients are being examined in the casualty department. Besides emergency surgeries, the operation theatres are open for the admitted patients and nowadays around 65 to 70 surgeries are being performed,” Asim added.
According to Farhad Khan, the media and protocol officer of the KTH, before Corona lockdown around 5500 patients were daily visiting the OPD of the hospital while approximately 100 surgeries were being performed. However, he said now only a few hundred patients were being examined in emergency department while 20 to 25 surgeries were being performed daily.
“We are providing 24/7 services in the accident and emergency department and will decide about reopening the OPDs after Eid,” he added.
Hayatabad Medical Complex spokeswoman Tauheed Zulfiqar told The Nation that around 4000 patients used to visit their OPD ahead of the Corona pandemic and around 200 surgeries were being performed daily in those days.
“After the closure of OPD, the number of patients admitted in the hospital has drastically decreased because people are even afraid to visit the emergency department of the health facility,” she added.
She said the HMC administration was mulling to reopen the OPD soon after Eid-ul-Azha.
“There was a decrease of approximately 400,000 visitors to the hospital due to the ongoing Corona situation while around 15,000 surgeries could not be performed,” she added.