1,000 oxygenated beds to be added to healthcare system by end of month

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) will add 1,000 oxygenated beds to build capacity of the critical healthcare system in major cities of the country by end of June.

The NCOC will ensure fast track approval for these beds to enhance healthcare system’s capacity, particularly critical healthcare system. The decision has been taken to tackle any contingency/surge in virus cases in the coming days. Procurement requirements for IHITC will be approved today and the procurement plan is already in place.

In context with Covid-19, the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) has constructed Isolation Hospital and Infectious Treatment Centre (IHITC) in Islamabad on behalf of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) on a turnkey basis. The 250 bed prefabricated state of the art hospital would be used to treat not only coronavirus infected patients under best available equipment and medication but also be available for treatment of other infectious diseases. Construction work on the project was completed within 35 days.

IHITC Islamabad consists of five wards having single rooms and an ICU each, two general wards, emergency department, diagnostics, radiology and pathology laboratory besides a mortuary and incinerator. It has specialised HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning) and sewerage system, CCTV, intercom, HIMS (Health Information Management System) & LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System), fire and smoke detection system, RO plant, kitchen, doctors’ accommodation and a mosque are part of this wonderful facility.