Pakistan hospital overwhelmed after floods

STORY: On a recent visit, Reuters witnessed hundreds of people crammed into rooms and corridors, desperately seeking treatment for those suffering from malaria and other illnesses that are spreading fast after the country's worst floods in decades.

Amid the crush, Naveed Ahmed, a young doctor in the Emergency Response department of Abdullah Shah Institute of Health Sciences, is surrounded by five or six people trying to get his attention.

The 30-year-old keeps his cool as stretched emergency services struggle to cope with thousands of patients arriving from miles around after towns and villages were submerged under water when heavy rains fell in August and September.

"We become so overworked at times that I feel like collapsing and going on an intravenous drip," a smiling Ahmed told Reuters as he sipped a cup of tea in the hospital's canteen during a short break.

"But it's because of the prayers of these patients that we keep going."

Most of the estimated 300-400 patients arriving at the clinic each morning are suffering from malaria and diarrhoea, although with winter approaching, Ahmed and others fear such illnesses will become more common.