RAWALPINDI: As the number of dengue patients increased with 73 cases reported on Sunday, Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Umer warned that the next three to four weeks were critical. He said the three government hospitals had made arrangements to accommodate more than 1000 dengue patients in case of an emergency. “At present, Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital have facilities to accommodate 500 patients at a time but we will accommodate 1,000 patients in case of emergency,” he said. Talking to , Prof Umer said RMU had made a comprehensive plan to use 200 to 300 beds of Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Red Crescent Hospital for the dengue patients while the remaining will be accommodated in the three other hospitals. Says private hospitals, clinics told to provide free training to doctors, nurses to handle patients He said that RMU had asked all private hospitals and clinics to provide free training to doctors and nurses to handle dengue patients in their outlets. “We have also asked them to send critical dengue patients to government hospitals if they found it difficult to handle them.” Prof Umer said the number of dengue patients had increased in the garrison city in the last one week. “At present, mostly patients in the hospitals are critical as they arrived late but doctors and paramedical staff members are working hard to save their lives.” He said that patients in the three hospitals came from areas on borders of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. He said that patients from the old airport, Khana Dak, Shakrial and areas along Islamabad Expressway, I.J. Principal Road and adjoining areas were arriving in the hospitals. “More than 30 per cent patients in government hospitals are from Islamabad and adjoining districts of Rawalpindi. The three hospitals did not refuse to admit any patient and provided treatment to them free of cost,” he said. Safety measures should be adopted to avoid dengue fever. He said that people should wear full-sleeve shirts, avoid accumulation of water in and around their houses and ensure cleanliness. According to data, there are 192 patients admitted to Holy Family Hospital Satellite Town, Benazir Bhutto Hospital on Murree Road and Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital Raja Bazaar while 69 patients were discharged after treatment on Sunday. As many as 72 patients are admitted in Holy Family Hospital, 91 in Benazir Bhutto Hospital and 29 patients in Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital. A total of 7486 patients arrived in the OPDs of the three hospitals from January 1 to September 21 while 1372 of them were admitted. As many as 766 of the patients were confirmed dengue cases. So far, four deaths have been reported in Rawalpindi from the dengue virus - two at HFH and one each at BBH and Fauji Foundation Hospital. On the other hand, District Health Authority officials said 73 new dengue patients were reported in the district. They said 39 patients arrived from Potohar Town, 12 from Rawalpindi Cantonment, nine from Rawalpindi city, five from Potohar Rural, two each from Chaklala Cantonment and Wah and one each from Taxila, Murree, Gujar Khan and Kallar Syedan. A senior official of the district administration said the situation in Chak Jalaldin, Girja and cantonment areas had become critical and special attention was being given to these areas.