Another doctor succumbs to Covid-19

Medics in Abbottabad concerned over lack of PPEs

ABBOTABAD:

A medical officer in Abbottabad has become the latest medical practitioner to lose his to the novel coronavirus in the region on Monday.

His demise prompted doctors and other health workers in the city to demand that the government provide them with the requisite amount of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Hospital officials and local leader of doctors confirmed that Casualty Medical Officer Dr Raja Asif at the Ayub Medical Complex died of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) on Monday.

He had been receiving treatment at the complex and had spent his last few days on a ventilator. Dr Asif’s father had also died of Covid-19 last week.

So far, as many as 22 doctors and 40 health workers have succumbed to Covid-19 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Subsequently, office bearers of the Peoples Doctors Forum (PDF) in Abbottabad sounded alarm at the worsening situation for health practitioners.

The PDF, in a meeting of its regional cabinet headed by chairman Professor Dr Nisar Khan, expressed the fear that hospitals in the region could face a shortage of staff as doctors, paramedics and nurses are being infected by Covid-19 everyday while there is no contingency plan in place at the outpatient departments.

PDF Spokesperson Dr Daud Iqbal said that medical staff in the region lack basic facilities such as adequate amount of facemasks, hand sanitizers, PPE and health care facilities. In turn, he said, it compromises the ability of medics to fight the deadly virus during its second wave.

“Shortage of protective gear is now being felt in many hospitals across the province as the number of patients testing positive for the potentially deadly coronavirus have been on the rise,” Dr Iqbal said. He lamented that the authorities are not taking their demands for PPE seriously. To make matters worse, Dr Iqbal believed that doctors are far more exposed now than during the first wave as there is no pre-screening process for patients. This also poses a threat to regular patients at the hospitals, he said.

The OPDs are flooded with patients where no masks or sanitizers are provided by doctors and other staffers, he complained.

PDF spokesperson further demanded the allocation of a dedicated space for doctors and medical staff infected with Covid-19.

Replying to a query Dr Iqbal said that Covid-19 is spreading rapidly. As many as 646 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in eight districts of Hazara in the past two months, he said, adding that as many as 65 patients are currently admitted to the ATH.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2020.