Punjab govt, health dept incapable of curbing the virus: YDA doctors

Hospitals like Punjab’s institute of Cardiology is causing the spread of the virus

LAHORE: Grand Health Alliance (GHA) on Tuesday accused the Punjab government and its health department of being incompetent and not helping the doctors in limiting the spread of the deadly pandemic.

Addressing a press conference at Punjab’s Institute of Cardiology (PIC) Young Doctors Association (YDA) leader Dr Zeeshan said that 48 PIC members had been affected by the coronavirus; 25 of them are still in quarantine.

“The hospital has become dangerous for medical staff and patients alike,” he said adding that cases of coronavirus were being diagnosed every day.

"We have only have received only 774 N-95 masks so far in the last two months while 2,100 medical staff work in one shift,” he stated.



Dr Zeeshan stressed that the doctors need safety kits not only for themselves but also for the patents. Four out of nine hospital departments had been closed, he added.

“It took nine hours for us to return the body of a coronavirus victim to the family,” he said. “We are being given corona test reports after 14 days. We appeal to the hospital administration to purchase N-95 mask for the doctors and stop ridiculing them.”

He added that no medical equipment was purchased from the Rs10 million grant given to the hospital.  Since a cure for the deadly virus has not yet been discovered, Dr Zeeshan urged the public to take precautionary measures. He also said that hospitals like PIC are causing the spread of the deadly pandemic.

“I am afraid that this hospital might increase the spread of the virus,” he warned. “Hospitals like PIC have become dangerous for patients because of the administration’s incompetence and malice. People with heart disease should not come to PIC as they may be cured of illness related to the heart but they may contract coronavirus.”



Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court (SC) noted the country could not be made completely dysfunctional due to contagious coronavirus disease as it ordered the federal and all provincial governments to allow reopening of shopping malls and lifting restrictions on doing businesses on Saturdays and Sundays.

The SC also asked the federal and provincial governments not to use all their resources to fight coronavirus disease, which, it observed, has not become a pandemic in the country – particularly when the country is facing numerous other challenges, including other deadly diseases.

“We are not suggesting by any means that the governments should not attend to coronavirus but we expect that the governments should not put all their resources for this one disease, nor the country should be made altogether dysfunctional because of this disease.