Rainwater puddles curtail access to hospitals

Seemingly all of Karachi is drowning after unprecedented monsoon downpours, evidenced by the one day public holiday, and hardest hit by the city swimming in rain water are those trying to access hospitals and health centres.

Some of the city’s major hospitals located on Rafiqui Shaheed Road - National Institute of Cardiology Hospital, Children’s NICH Hospital, and Jinnah Hospital - present a picture of despair as their entrances have been replaced with ponds consisting of a mixture of rain and sewage water.

Other hospitals in the city are not doing any better either, as Dr Rubina Bashir, Chief of Civil Hospital, while talking to the Express Tribune, said that monsoon downpours had created several unsurpassable puddles around the hospital. “Despite us having an emergency rain control department and draining excess water, the still bodies of water remain. So, patients and their caregivers are having immense trouble accessing our services.” Concurring with Dr Bashir’s assessment of the situation, patients at Karachi Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) hospital, further reported that because there was no electricity or running water at the hospitals.

Several family members of the patients also informed the Express Tribune that they had to bring clean water from home. However, it is not just patients who facing difficulties in reaching hospitals, paramedicals and nursing staff at Abbasi Hospital, Sobhraj Hospital, Ghazi Hospital, Gazdarabad Hospital, Infection Hospital in Manghopir, Skin Disease Hospital in Saddar, Sindh Government Korangi Hospital in Saddar, Sindh Government Saudabad Hospital, Sindh Government New Karachi Hospital, and Sindh Government Qatar Hospital all reported either not being able to reach work.

Essential staff at the hospitals further said that the administration had largely failed to do anything about the puddles of rain and sewage water. One such staff person, talking to the Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, said, “the accumulated water is a double edged sword. Diseases might spread as a result of the puddles and it does not seem likely that the administration will do anything.”

Infectious disease medical experts agree stating that urgent sanitation work is required to address the problem caused by Karachi’s heavy rains in order to prevent contamination from the dirt and filth. They further said that already vulnerable patients are at a greater risk as they may contract serious illnesses. Keeping that in mind, staff of the city’s hospitals and patients alike have begun imploring the provincial government for an emergency spraying campaign of disinfectants in all of the city’s health care facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2022.