Fearing rapid growth in COVID-19 cases and deaths, doctors demand health emergency, security

By M. Waqar Bhatti
June 04, 2020

With hundreds of people contracting the coronavirus infection and dozens of deaths on a daily basis in Karachi, as well as due to the unavailability of beds at Karachi’s treatment facilities, an exponential rise in the number of deaths due to the viral infection is feared and it is high time a health emergency was declared in Sindh, the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) and other medical associations said on Wednesday.

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Expressing concern over the growing number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the province, especially in Karachi and the unavailability of beds in treatment wards in the city, PIMA officials said most of the HDUs and ICUs at all the public and private hospitals were packed to capacity and there was an urgent need to enhance the capacity of the COVID-19 treatment facilities in Sindh, especially in Karachi.

“Both the Sindh and the federal governments as well as national and provincial disaster management authorities are lying about the availability of beds and ventilators for the COVID-19 patients. The actual situation is that no beds are available at 8-10 leading health facilities in both public and private sectors,” said Prof Dr Sohail Akhtar, former president of the PIMA and a senior pulmonologist of the country, while addressing a news conference at the Karachi Press Club.

Accompanied by another former PIMA president Dr Misbah-ul-Aziz, office-bearer Dr Atif Hafeez, PIMA Karachi President Dr Muhammad Azeem, senior ENT specialist Dr Shuja Farrukh, DUA Foundation’s Secretary General Dr Fayyaz Alam and others, Prof Sohail Akhtar the COVID-19 situation was getting out of control very rapidly in Pakistan, and during the last five weeks, the number of cases and deaths had multiplied six times in Pakistan. Other physicians and health experts, including Prof Jalal Akbar, Dr Zeeshan Hussain Ansari, Dr Kashif Shazlee, were also present on the occasion.

“Five weeks back, at the start of the holy month of Ramazan, the number of COVID-19 cases was only 12,500 and there were only 269 deaths in the country. Now the number of cases has reached 80,000 with 1,600 deaths. If this trend continues and no steps are taken to break the chain, we fear an exponential growth in the number of cases and deaths in the weeks to come while we are not prepared to deal with this catastrophe,” Prof Akhtar added.

Sharing data of the health facilities in Karachi, he said no beds were available in the HUDs and ICUs at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), Ojha campus of DUHS, Indus Hospital Karachi, Civil Hospital Karachi, Aga Khan Hospital, Liaquat National Hospital and several other health facilities in the city, saying there was an urgent need to enhance the capacity of COVID-19 treatment wards in the city and other cities of the province.

Criticising the management of the Expo Centre’s field isolation centre, Prof Akhtar said the 550-bed isolation centre had only 75 asymptomatic patients at the moment, but it was not taking patients even with mild symptoms, which made it of no use as hospitals were filled with patients and there was no space available for the critically sick COVID-19 patients in the city.

He also expressed concern over the growing incidents of violence against healthcare workers as well as growing incidence of coronavirus infections among healthcare providers, saying the security situation at hospitals had deteriorated to an extent where doctors were thinking of boycotting the health services but had decided otherwise in the larger interests of the patients. He demanded of the government to immediately provide security to healthcare providers.

Former PIMA president and senior eye specialist Dr Misbahul Aziz said government should ensure strict possible implementation of the SOPs at public places and making the use of masks mandatory for everyone. He added that the government should also ensure safety and security of the hospital premises and staff who included, doctors, nurses and paramedics.

“We also demand making beds available for healthcare professionals affected by COVID-19 at leading health facilities in the city. There is no dedicated facility available yet. The capacity of the hospitals needs to be increased on a war footing. Ensure PGs and residents get bonuses equal to that given to government employees by relevant universities/ authorities,” Prof. Misbah added.

Prof Dr Atif Hafeez, former PIMA Karachi president, said as nobody knew about the situation at hospitals where COVID-19 patients were being treated, authorities should make the dashboard on beds and ventilators’ availability public as nothing had been done so far despite pledges from the Sindh government.

“We also demand arranging talk shows on electronic media to forcefully debunk myths and conspiracy theories on COVID-19. The government should also ensure an uninterrupted supply of PPE kits to medical personnel at every level. Doctors still face a lot of challenges in accessing protective equipment.”

DUA Foundation’s Secretary General Dr Fayyaz Alam said their organisation in collaboration with the PIMA and the YDA was doing its level best to make these available, and so far PPE kits worth Rs10 million had been distributed.

The PIMA office-bearers also demanded of the government to immediately establish a dedicated COVID hospital as it was being done in other countries to cater to the increasing number of patients and in anticipation of a second wave of COVID 19 patients. They asked that the government should utilise Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) for this purpose and also tell the exact status of the announced NIPA hospital.

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