MANSEH RA: The provincial government has decided to appoint 130 staffers, including doctors and nurses, at King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, Mansehra.

`The provincial government wants to provide maximum healthcare services to people in the district. That`s why it has decided to appoint 130 more employees at the sole tertiary healthcare facility in the district,` Dr Naeem Awan, the medical superintendent of hospital, toldjournalistshere.

He said that currently the hospital was facing shortage of medical specialists, surgeons and other staf f. People would avail more efficient and quick health services at the hospital once the process of appointments was completed, he added.

Dr Naeem said that 50 more nurses and same number of medial officers, 20 paramedics and 10 sweepers would be appointed at the hospital. He said that capacity of the hospital was affected after it was destroyed in the 2005 earthquake. Once the hospital was reconstructed, the number of beds would be increased, he added.

Dr Naeem said that reconstruction of the hospital wasscheduled to be completed in 2012 but it was still incomplete. He said that water entered a block of the hospital owing to fault in its designs during the current spell of monsoon rains. Fortunately machinery worth billion of rupees was shifted to a safer place, he added.

`We have taken the issue with high-ups of health department and local lawmakers and an appropriate action might be taken against the construction company concerned,` said Dr Naeem.

He said that the hospital was put on high alert due to the current monsoon rains.

ACCIDENT: Seven tourists, including women and children, sustained critical injures when a passenger jeep plunged into a deep ravine near Saiful Muluk Lake in Naran area of Kaghan valley the other day.

Sources said that the jeep plunged into the ravine when its driver lost control over the wheel while overtaking another vehicle. The local people rushed to the scene and shifted injured persons to Naran hospital from where they were referred to Ayub Medical Complex in Abbottabad.

Meanwhile, a young boy was killed by unidentified persons in Bohraj area here on Monday.

The body of Mohammad Naseer, who had gone to bring fodder for his cattle, was found near a primary school in the area. Gohar Rehman, the father of the deceased,told police thathe had no enmity with anyone.