PESHAWAR, Nov 9: The accident and emergency department (AED) of the Lady Reading Hospital is being shifted to its newly-constructed building to cope with the load of patients from bomb, suicide and other terror attacks effectively, officials said.

The new building, constructed at a cost of Rs400 million, will have arrangements to provide prompt treatment to the critically-injured or ill patients, they said. Establishment of the AED was part of the government plan to expand the 2,400-bed hospital of the province.

The government has also approved the establishment of four new wards to cope with load of patients in as many specialties at the LRH, which received 3,000 patients on average per day who needed emergency treatment, the officials said.

According to the officials, the need for the new premises was felt in view of the increasing acts of terrorism like the suicide attack on a local church due to which 233 injured persons were brought to the department.

Presently, the patients were being rushed to the CT scan room located outside the AED which was time-consuming, they said, adding that a CT scan machine and X-ray plants had now been installed to give care to the critically-injured persons in the same building.

LRH chief executive officer Prof Arshad Javaid told Dawn that they would apply to the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) for getting teaching status for the AED to produce specialists for handling emergencies throughout the province.

`The department has started to fulfill a set of requirements set forth by the CPSP to accord recognition to it, as we have recently inducted 79 medical officers and 11 specialists, including an assistant professor and six senior registrars and four consultants,` Prof Javaid said.

He said that the CPSP had approved post-graduate training of doctors in trauma at the facility.

The LRH would until now transport unidentifiable and unclaimed dead bodies to the Department of Forensic Science and Toxicology, Khyber Medical College.

The new building has purpose-built mortuary with 50 storage capacity to make the department a full-fledged facility, he said.

He said that a total of 150 beds had been approved to provide treatment to the persons with wounds, fractured bones and head injuries.

Such patients are currently being shifted to wards for admission after first-aid in the AED, he said.

Prof Javaid said that a mass emergency hall of 50-bed trauma room and eight operation theatres were part of the programme to be able to serve as teaching facility for the health professionals besides giving timely treatment to seriously ill patients.

He said that due to rush at the hospital gate near Andar Shehr, people had been allowed entrance to the building near Kabuli gate so as to facilitate prompt reach, investigation and treatment of patients.

The LRH chief executive officer said that the existing building of the AED would house four new wards, including neurosurgery, general surgery, endocrinology and gastroenterology.

With 1,700 beds in 28 wards and 4,000 staffers the LRH is the biggest health facility in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and it is being upgraded to cope with load of blast victims and other serious patients, he said.

Endocrinology OPD has been started which receives 250 patients on average daily, but admission facility is scarce because it has been allotted only16 beds that are scattered in eye, ENT and other wards. A full-scale ward will be established there, he said.