AKUH to resume screening, testing of suspected COVID-19 patients at new site on campus

The interim chief executive officer of the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Shagufta Hassan, said on Wednesday their hospital was likely to resume screening and testing of suspected COVID-19 patients from next week at a new site, which is being established by keeping in view all the safety and precautionary measures.

She said that the AKUH had never stopped the testing of extremely sick patients in the emergency even for a single day. “Due to a global shortage of testing kits, we conserved the testing kits only for critically sick patients and never stopped the testing at our hospital. But now we are establishing a new testing site at the main hospital where screening and testing of suspected COVID-19 patients would be started as per international guidelines and protocols," Hassan said while talking to The News after receiving a donation of 20,000 facemasks.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC) and the Chinese Consulate General have donated 20,000 masks to the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) to fight the coronavirus outbreak and prevent their healthcare workers from getting infected with the highly contagious disease.

The consignment comprising 10,000 N95 and remaining surgical masks was handed over to the AKUH chief executive officer by ICBC officials during a brief ceremony at the AKUH.

Hassan maintained that healthcare workers in Pakistan were "doing Jihad" after the oronavirus outbreak but advised them to take care of themselves and use personal protective equipment (PPE) properly as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines so that they could remain safe while examining and treating patients.

“In my view, healthcare workers are doing Jihad by working at healthcare facilities during the COVID-19 outbreak, but they need to be highly careful and use the PPE as per WHO and CDC guidelines. At the same time, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) should be used very cautiously and judiciously as it is now the most precious equipment in the healthcare settings," she said.

Urging the people to come forward and donate whatever they could in this testing time when a pandemic had gripped the entire world, including Pakistan, she said the PPE gifted to the Chinese Bank and officials was the most precious gift they could have at this time. She added that they were establishing a new site at the AKUH for the screening and testing of COVID-19 patients where PPE would be used sensibly as per the international organisation’s guidelines.

To a query, she said, plans to start home screening of suspected coronavirus patients and moving the screening, testing and treatment of patients to any secondary site of the AKUH had been shelved.