RAWALPINDI: The biggest and one of the oldest government hospital of Rawalpindi city – Holy Family Hospital (HFH) – will be completely closed for the public in the next couple of days as the building is being handed over to the Communication and Works Department for reconstruction and renovation.

The renovation work to be carried out at a cost of Rs2 billion is expected to be completed by February next year and it has been decided that the patients who are presently under treatment at the HFH will now be shifted to the other two government hospitals -- Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

The decision was made by the members of a working committee which met under Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha in the hospital on Friday.

The meeting was attended by Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Umer, Principal Rawalpindi Medical University Dr Jahangir Sarwar, HFH Medical Superintendent Dr Ijaz Butt, Executive Engineer Building.

HFH to remain closed till Feb 2024 for renovation, reconstruction

Talking to Dawn, a senior official of the district administration admitted that the influx of the patients in other hospitals would create problems for the administration to handle the situation as these two hospitals were already facing shortage of staff and beds.

When contacted, RMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Umer said they had chalked out a comprehensive plan to deal with the patients. He said new admissions of the patients had been stopped while the existing in house patients would be shifted to other hospitals. He said some of the patients, whose treatment had been completed, would soon be discharged from the hospital.

He said the Rescue 1122 services would be utilised to shift the patients to other hospitals. He said the committee had decided to contact Cantonment General Hospital and Social Security Hospital to accommodate the patients.

Under the plan, he said that gynae patients would be shifted to the BBH on Murree Road and DHQ hospital in Raja Bazaar.

“Medicine and Surgery departments will be shifted to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant on Murree Road while dengue patients of three hospitals, including HFH, BBH and the DHQ Hospital will be shifted to Red Crescent Hospital [in Satellite Town],” he said.

Meanwhile, the Rawalpindi commissioner visited various parts of the HFH building and took a detailed briefing regarding the construction work which is about to start in the hospital.

According to a press release, the commissioner was informed that the construction work in the hospital would start in the next two days and a deadline of three months had been set for its completion. The construction work will be carried out in the new and old blocks of the hospital.

The services of staff and doctors of the HFH would also be rendered to the other hospitals so that there was no problem due to increase in patient load. Dengue infected patients will be transferred to Red Crescent Hospital whereas kidney and bladder patients will be treated at the Institute of Urology and transplantation.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Chatha said special measures were being taken by the Punjab government to equip the city’s big hospital with modern facilities.

He said the patients and their families should be informed that this temporary inconvenience would bring them peace for many years to come.

He requested the patients to cooperate with the administration so that this state-of-the-art hospital could be completed and operational as soon as possible. The commissioner directed the staff that banners should be displayed in different parts of the city to inform the public about the construction work.

The Holy Family Hospital has a total area of 672,000 square feet. The number of beds in the hospital is 1,030. On average, over 2,100 patients are reported in the hospital’s OPD whereas the hospital used to receive over 900 emergency patients daily.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2023