Retired doctors, final-year medical students may join fight against Covid-19

NCOC tells shops to adopt ‘no-mask, no-service’ policy as daily deaths figures hit new highs

ISLAMABAD: Final-year medical students across the country may soon find themselves at the frontline of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as the overall death toll topped 1,500 and the number of cases crossed 70,000-mark on Sunday, putting increasing pressure on the health system of the country.

Apparently, the shortage of medical personnel has the ministry of national health services looking toward “mobilising” retired doctors, young and on house-job doctors as well as the final year medical students to deal with the soaring number of Covid-19 cases in Pakistan.

During the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) meeting on Sunday, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Dr Zafar Mirza, informed the participants that “his ministry was planning to mobilise retired doctors of public sector hospitals, young doctors, doctors on house jobs, and the final-year medical students to cope with the situation”.

Moreover, Mirza said, “new doctors and paramedics would be recruited through walk-in interviews”. The forum was informed that the provinces had been asked to ensure community mobilisation and set up call centres in their respective areas by June 15.

Till 2018, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, there are 220,829 registered doctors, 22,595 dentists and 108,474 nurses available in the country. The population per doctor, dentist and bed is 963, 9,413 and 1,608, respectively.

Covid-19 has continued to gain grounds in the country as the national tally of cases rose to 71,111 with 25,056 cases in Punjab, 28,245 in Sindh, 10,027 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4,293 in Balochistan, 711 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 2,418 in Islamabad and 261 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Out of the total infected people, 25,271 people have recovered while 1,520 lost their lives. According to the NCOC’s situational report released, only 379 people were under 50 years of age. “Five doctors have lost their lives to Covid in last 24 hours, two from Lahore and one each from Gujranwala, Peshawar and Faisalabad,” it added.

The NCOC meeting also heard that “Sindh and Balochistan governments were not agreeing on imposing smart lockdown”. Instead, they preferred the home quarantine policy.

The plan to engage doctors has surfaced a day before the National Coordination Committee (NCC) meeting scheduled to be held on June 1 (today) to finalise the strategy regarding coronavirus for the month of June.

The NCOC meeting, which was attended by Planning Minister Asad Umar, Interior Minister Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah, Food Security Minister Fakhar Imam, Economic Affairs Minister Khusro Bakhtiar, prime minister’s special assistants Dr Moeed Yousaf and Dr Mirza, “was told that the Resource Management System (RMS) would be rolled out across country from the 1st of June.”

Under this system, the forum was informed, the hospitals would also share the details of local resources available to them, total admitted patients, denial of admissions, no of beds and ventilators available, as well as other facilities being provided to them.

While expressing satisfaction over the availability of ventilators in countrywide hospitals, Asad Umar directed the authorities concerned to provide latest information about the availability of beds and other related facilities for the information of the infected people.

On Saturday, the NCOC had “insisted” that the marriage halls should be allowed to reopen with limited number of guests while recommending that the educational institutions should be kept closed till August.

In Sunday’s meeting, the forum – which serves as the nerve centre of the unified national effort against coronavirus – sought to “engage market associations for the implementation of Covid-19 guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) in letter and spirit”.

The forum suggested strict punitive action for any violation of the SOPs. It urged the shopkeepers to strictly implement “no-mask, no-service,” policy. Umar directed for pursuing a vigorous mass awareness campaign focusing on ensuring behaviour change of the people regarding the disease.

The NCOC also noted that the country witnessed the “highest number of deaths (88) in a single day on Sunday. It added that more than 3,000 new infections were also the highest single-day tally, since the pandemic emerged in the country in March.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan while inaugurating Covid-19 Telehealth Portal had hoped that the nation would work together to confront the threat posed by Covid-19. He had urged the doctors, especially lady doctors, to register and render services through health portal.

Just a couple of days ago, the Young Doctors Association (YDA) had claimed that around 80 doctors and healthcare workers performing duties at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) – the largest hospital in the federal capital – have so far been infected by the novel coronavirus since March 8.

The fatalities in the last 24 hours included a doctor in K-P – the fourth fatality of a medical worker in the province—an octogenarian prisoner at the Karachi Central Jail, and patient in the Chitral district, the first death in the district because of the contagion.