KARACHI: Sindh health authorities on Saturday warned that the number of beds at high dependency units (HDUs) in isolation centres and hospitals of the province were running short due to a growing number of coronavirus patients, asking the people to take precautionary measures and observe social distancing to meet the challenge.

In a statement, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho appealed to the people to follow social distancing and precautionary measures to keep things under control.

“In our high dependency units (HDU), the number of beds is falling short,” she said. “People would have to take precautionary measures at any cost. We are also making effort to build our capacity and number of beds but people have to play their role.”

She said that there was a sharp jump in number of patients needing ventilators. “We have dedicated a floor at the Trauma Centre for high dependency unit and intensive care unit,” she said. “Similarly, in Lyari’s trauma centre number of beds has been increased to 150 and at the Civil Hospital Karachi a block has been dedicated for the patients of coronavirus.”

She also mentioned that by the end of the month two units of 200 beds would be ready in the government hospital near NIPA, Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

Experts say easing lockdown may have very serious implications due to fragile healthcare system

“We are seeing a sharp increase in the number of patients after every half an hour. We need to be more cautious and careful after the lockdown is eased,” she added.

‘Health system may collapse’

Health experts expressed serious concerns over the federal government’s decision to ease the lockdown across the country and said it might have very serious implications as the healthcare system was too fragile at a time when the country was experiencing a continued rise in coronavirus cases.

The apprehensions were expressed at a press conference jointly organised by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (Pima) and Pakistan Chest Society.

Sharing doctors’ concerns, Dr Ikram Ahmed Tunio of the PMA said all health-related organisations had been emphasizing the need for a strict lockdown from day one along with mass awareness about preventive measures to minimise the spread of Covid-19.

“As far as the state of medical facilities and capability and capacity of the government is concerned, it is known to all that the system will not [be] able to meet needs of all patients if their numbers rose,” Dr Tunio warned.

Speaking about the healthcare facilities dedicated for coronavirus treatment in Karachi, he said currently there were only 63 beds available at five public sector hospitals in Karachi.

“The situation in other cities won’t be different if not worse. At the moment, 350 beds out of 1,200 beds at the Expo Centre field hospital are occupied. Though appreciable, the facility is only providing an effective isolation and primary support. We fear that after the gradual relaxation in lockdown all over the country, a floodgate of Covid-19 patients will open in society,” he said.

Citing example of other countries, the experts argued that they relaxed the lockdown when they saw a decline in coronavirus cases.

On the contrary, however, Covid-19 cases were on the rise in Pakistan and any relaxation at this time would aggravate the crisis, insisting the government continue with the lockdown till coronavirus cases started slowing down in a few weeks.

The experts’ panel was of the view that if the government relaxed the lockdown with standard operating procedures (SOPs), it should take the responsibility to implement the SOPs. Otherwise, the exercise won’t be successful as “citizens clearly lacked discipline”.

“Likewise, with the expected surge of patients, the government hasn’t given any plan to cater to their needs as the existing infrastructure is already saturated.

“There should be a clear dashboard or a central helpline from provincial governments in all major cities to guide patients where to contact if they are sick. Only announcing designated hospitals does not help as it leads to frustration in finding a place by the sick,” said Dr Qaiser Sajjad, also from the PMA.

The helpline, he said, should be accessible to ambulance services so that an ambulance driver could easily drop patients.

Highlighting flaws in the government strategy, experts said no plan had been announced yet to protect healthcare workers so far as shortage of personal protective equipment continued amid growing cases of infection among healthcare workers.

They demanded that screening of healthcare workers should be made mandatory to protect co-workers, their families and others.

PMA president Dr Azeemuddin and Dr Atif Hafeez were also in attendance.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2020