Hospital for Covid-19 lags in development

Infectious diseases hospital, planned to have 200 beds by Sept, running on just 66 beds

A few months into the coronavirus pandemic, amid the multitude of measures the Sindh government had announced to tackle the contagion, came the much-vaunted establishment of the Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Centre.

Initially set up as a 54-bed facility in July, primarily to treat Covid-19 patients, the government had aimed to expand its capacity to 200 beds within the next six weeks.

After four months - and as the country heads into the pandemic's second wave - the object is yet to be achieved, with the hospital having just 66 beds. Besides, the hospital management no longer sees expanding the facility's bed capacity to 200 as its short-term target and looks to add just enough to increase its capacity to 150 beds.

Part of the hospital, which was conceived to accommodate 400 beds, is still under constructions. While two of its blocks have been erected, the remaining two are yet to see completion.

Moreover, the hospital's high-dependency unit, initially comprising 34 beds and planned to have 88 beds by the target of six weeks after its inauguration, remains at the same capacity it had when it was set up.

The facility's management and relevant authorities have also failed at ensuring the availability of research facilities at the infectious diseases hospital, despite the fact that it has been given the status of a research centre as well.

The target of increasing the bed capacity of the intensive care units (ICU) from 16 beds to 32, though, has been achieved. There are two ICUs at the hospital, each comprising 16 beds, according to the facility's medical superintended Dr Abdul Wahid Rajput.

He said both the ICUs were fully occupied and assured that the number of beds at the hospital would be increased by the month's end.

Besides, the construction of two blocks will be completed within in a year or two, following which the hospital will have 400 beds, he affirmed.

Turned away

At the time of the infectious diseases hospital's establishment, the authorities saw it as an addition to their resources of battling the pandemic.

However, it was also to serve to provide treatment to patients suffering from other infectious diseases. Nevertheless, the hospital management is purportedly only accepting Covid-19 patients, coming from across Sindh, as well as Balochistan.

According to Dr Rajput, the healthcare facility, though established to treat all infectious diseases, had been reserved for Covid-19 patients for now, as hospitals struggled to accommodate all cases with limited bed capacities.

"The first priority is to control the coronavirus and this is why the facility has been dedicated for treating Covid-19 patients."

Even then, the hospital lacks Covid-19 testing facilities. Consequently, the samples collected from suspected Covid-19 patients visiting the hospital are sent elsewhere for testing.

To add to this, Covid-19 patients who develop complications such as difficulty in breathing and kidney and cardiovascular diseases, too, are referred to other healthcare facilities, according to sources.

This was denied by Dr Rajput, who said no comorbid patient had been sent to any other facility.

According to him, Covid-19 patients are being treated for free at the hospital, with the Sindh government bearing all the expenses.

He also assured that patients having other infectious diseases, such as pneumonia, hepatitis, tuberculosis, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever and influenza, would be treated at the hospital after the pandemic abated.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2020.