Doctors fear oxygen shortage in K-P

Health department to ensure availability at hospitals

PESHAWAR:

The Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) has raised fears of a looming shortage of oxygen in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 infections and demanded that a Covid emergency be declared immediately.

The association also demanded an inquiry into the death of eight patients at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) due to lack of facilities in the past few weeks.

PDA urged the government to take steps to ensure uninterrupted supply of oxygen as its demand has increased five-fold in recent days and is still going up.

In a press statement the association has asked the K-P government to ensure uninterrupted supply of oxygen at district level, fearing that an oxygen crisis could soon engulf the entire country in the face of ever increasing Covid emergency and this will be fatal for the majority of patients.

Read: Govt to import 6,000 tons of oxygen: Umar

“Medics are faced with a lot many problems but even then they are putting their own lives at risk to serve the masses. They are facing delay in promotions. A large number of doctors are working on ad hoc basis who need to be made permanent. Delay in the payment of allowances for the Corona Rapid Response Teams across the province as well understaffing at hospitals also need to be addressed,” said the Vice President of PDA Dr Rahil Shahzad while talking to The Express Tribune.

He said that government should pay attention to the district hospitals. “A lockdown has been imposed in Mardan but the oxygen supply should also be doubled. A new oxygen tank should have been added. But unfortunately this is not the case and the Health Department is reluctant to take such steps which will cause problems in the coming days,” he said, adding that hospitals in Peshawar are already under pressure and are pushed to the limits as far as oxygen supply is concerned.

“Government should at least double the capacity of oxygen at all the hospitals in district and Peshawar to handle the situation. If people hoard the oxygen cylinders and black-market them then it will be a big problem,” he said.

PDA claimed that so far 97 health workers including 64 doctors have lost their lives in the pandemic but even then they are not being paid Corona Risk Allowance which is being paid to all doctors and workers in all the three provinces of the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2021.