Medics’ sacrifices mark year of pandemic

The medical professionals led the fight against novel coronavirus during the past year while offering unmatched sacrifices for the cause.

While researchers around the world focused on curing the disease, the doctors and paramedics put in every effort to provide medical care to the infected patients without caring for their own lives.

When the pandemic reached the country, the government had no preparation to save the people from it, nor did it have any equipment to protect the doctors.

The doctors, nurses and paramedics started the struggle against coronavirus without the protective gear. However, they served without hesitating from sacrificing their lives and are still offering their services with a spirit of Jihad.

There was a shortage of safety kits for those treating patients during the first wave of the pandemic.

The doctors and nurses along with their families, homes, hostels and hospital wards remained at risk from the infection.

In addition to thousands of people of the country, the year 2020 witnessed the martyrdom of a number of the most sincere, educated and authoritative physicians.

As many as 118 health professionals across the country succumbed to the virus. In Punjab, 49 doctors, four nurses and another paramedic lost their lives to the pandemic. Those who sacrificed their lives in other provinces included 25 doctors, a nurse and two paramedics in Sindh, six doctors and three paramedics in Balochistan, 15 doctors, two nurses and five paramedics in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, one doctor in Gilgit-Baltistan, one in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and one doctor, two operation theatre technicians and four professors in the federal capital.

The young doctors' and nurses' associations in Punjab formed an alliance with the paramedics' alliance to pay tribute to the medical professionals for their services.

A central leader of the Grand Health Alliance Punjab, Dr Haseeb Chaudhry, said that in the ongoing war against coronavirus, medical professionals are still paying their role at the cost of their lives.

He said the medical professionals engaged in the ongoing fight against the pandemic had not been provided sufficient additional funding and protective equipment.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said the ministry and Prime Minister Imran Khan have acknowledged the services of medical professionals and their demands are being seriously considered. Apart from additional salaries, they are also being given other benefits. However, the war against the virus is not over yet and the stable and cohesive policy adopted by the government is unmatched anywhere in the world, she claimed.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2021.