Confirmed patients at PIMS, their families in miserable condition

Islamabad : The patients of COVID-19 including suspects and confirmed ones undergoing treatment at isolation ward of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) have been in much miserable condition particularly those who are in intensive care while their family members have to face a lot of difficulties in knowing status of health of their dear ones in intensive care unit.

The staff at the isolation ward of PIMS is asking attendants of patients in isolation to remain present outside the ward enabling them to get tests of patients done from private laboratories while the health department quarantines all the family members of a patient tested positive for COVID-19.

The family members of a confirmed patient has to complete 14-day quarantine at home even if they are all tested negative while the confirmed patients of the illness would have to be taken to the healthcare facility if needed.

The staff at the isolation ward of the PIMS gives telephone number to the family members of the admitted patient to get update about his or her health but it is hardly possible for one to get update as nobody picks the phone up at the intensive care unit of isolation ward at PIMS. Doctors and paramedics are serving the patients but the administration seems little interested in minimizing the difficulties being faced by family members of confirmed patients in isolation particularly the patients who cannot keep or operate their cell phones.

PIMS Executive Director Dr. Ansar Maqsood claimed that all the tests of COVID-19 patients are done in public sector, at NIH or at the hospital excluding one or two tests which are not available at PIMS. No patient in isolation ward needs attendant and the hospital cares for all the patients undergoing treatment at the isolation ward, he said while talking to ‘The News’.

However, when he told that the staff at isolation ward is asking attendants of patients to remain present outside ward, he said he would get update on it.

When asked that how the family members who are under quarantine at homes can get status of their patient in intensive care unit of isolation ward at PIMS, he said the staff at the ICU can be approached through PIMS telephone exchange.

In actual, the PIMS exchange gives you the required extension at ICU in isolation ward but no one is there to give you details about the patient, said a family member of a confirmed patient of COVID-19 undergoing treatment at ICU in isolation ward of PIMS.

He said one can witness a crowd of attendants outside isolation ward at PIMS who are there following directives of the staff at isolation ward. The staff at isolation wards wants patients attendants to remain physically present outside the ward so that they can arrange for tests to be done from private laboratories. Many health experts say that it is so because the hospital staff is dealing with the COVID-19 patient’s attendants conventionally by relying on them for tests being done from private labs.

Ideally, there should be no attendant outside the isolation ward of the hospital and the patient’s family members should be informed of the status of patient’s health on phone as we have given phone numbers of the ward to the family members, said Dr. Ansar.

When asked why no-one responds to the calls made at ICU or isolation ward, he said he would look into the matter.

Meanwhile the Executive District Officer (Health) Rawalpindi Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary when contacted by ‘The News’ said the hospitals dealing with COVID-19 cases in the district have not been making physical presence of attendants mandatory at the hospitals, as it may cause further spread of the infection.