Medical director, focal person of HMC test positive for COVID-19

PESHAWAR: The medical director of the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Prof Dr Shehzad Akbar, and focal person of the hospital for coronavirus, Dr Mohammad Shah, tested positive for the viral infection on Saturday.

Both are general surgeons by profession and known for their efficient work during the Covid pandemic earlier this year. According to officials of the hospital, both had not been feeling well for the last few days and tested positive for the viral infection. They had isolated themselves.

According to Mohammad Aqeel, secretary to the Board of Governors (BoG), Prof Shehzad Akbar had again ignored himself and started making preparations for providing the best available services to the Covid patients when the second wave was reported. “Like the previous pandemic, Prof Shehzad Akbar again decorated himself to the patients when we started receiving the Covid patients. He would come early in the morning and would leave the hospital after 12 o’clock in the night,” Mohmmad Aqeel recalled.

He said he came to the hospital early as usual on Saturday and visited various sections of the hospital. He met patients and doctors and then came to his office but was not feeling well due to severe fever and body pain,” he added. He said he later gave his sample for Covid investigation that declared him positive.

“I am seriously worried about the hospital and patients now as Prof Shahzad Akbar worked with devotion and dedication,” he said. Prof Shehzad Akbar had developed his team of professionals after the Covid outbreak and better managed the pandemic within limited resources. When the corona pandemic hit the region, the provincial government was not fully prepared to handle it. The government didn’t have even personal protective equipment (PPEs) and other necessary items for the health workers. Prof Shehzad Akbar was the first one to make their own arrangements and prepare PPEs and other stuff for the doctors and other health workers of the hospital supposed to handle Covid patients. It was due to the services of Prof Shehzad Akbar and his team during the Covid pandemic that the government of Pakistan nominated him for a national award to recognise his services. HMC had secured trust of the people and besides common people, doctors, bureaucrats, politicians and other professionals preferred to be taken to the facility when they developed symptoms of coronavirus.