PMA demands safety gear for health workers

Calls for giving preference to increasing testing capacity over procuring ventilators

KARACHI: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has demanded of the Sindh government to immediately provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare professionals and establish more screening and testing facilities at the district level.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, PMA members expressed concerns over the condition of healthcare workers, who they said were fighting the battle against COVID-19 on the front line.

Criticising the government for its "misplaced priorities," PMA's Karachi-wing General-Secretary Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro said that increasing testing capacity should be given preference over procuring ventilators.

"Specific hospitals should be set up for patients with the virus," he said, that it was the need of the hour to activate the network of community clinics, family physicians and registered general practitioners after providing them PPEs and briefing them about standard operating procedures.

The speakers also asked the government to encourage home isolation and urged it to trace suspected patients through the modern technology. They also called for sealing coronavirus hotspots in Sindh.

The association's members were joined by the representatives of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, Young Doctors Association, Sindh, Young Nursing Federation, Midwifery Association of Pakistan, Sindh High Court Bar Association, Karachi Bar Association and College of Family Medicine of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2020.