Where a paucity of public healthcare facilities has complicated the availability of surgical treatment for patients with chronic illnesses, those fortunate enough to have their surgeries performed fall out of the frying pan and straight into the fire, as unhygienic conditions of operation theatres multiply the risk of acquiring a morbid infection.
Despite the Health Department Punjab issuing guidelines to public hospitals for ensuring postoperative infection prevention, a large majority of healthcare facilities in the core province continue to perform critical surgeries in unsterile operation theatres, which contain infected matter ranging from contaminated equipment to even sewage water, posing a towering risk to patients, who risk contracting a bigger disease than the one they set out to cure.
“Government hospitals have persistently failed to regulate infection prevention protocols, due to which numerous patients are exposed to life-threatening infections during an invasive surgical procedure,” informed Dr Salman Kazmi, General Secretary at the Young Doctors Association Punjab, who further added that the presence of external surgical equipment alongside other contamination sources, including airborne agents, was a paramount factor contributing towards the unsterile environment within surgical facilities.
According to sources from within government healthcare facilities, the detection of lethal pathogens like pseudomonas aeruginosa, hay bacillus, and methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, among others inside operation theatres, has culminated into multiple instances of repeated infections among patients following risky surgeries like the coronary artery bypass, which have in some cases ended in death of the afflicted.
Even though the Punjab Healthcare Commission exists to institute reforms aimed at improving patient welfare across hospitals, poor implementation strategies employed by the commission means that infection control protocols are seldom observed.
The presence of such loopholes in protocol enforcement and accountability is what has led to the current state of operation theatres in public facilities like the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) where recently the accumulation of sewage water in operation theatres, led to the closure of 7 out of 9 surgical rooms in the hospital on the orders of the provincial caretaker government.
Speaking to The Express Tribune on the matter, the caretaker Health Minister of Punjab, Dr Javed Akram announced that he had issued a directive to cease all surgical operations within the PIC, on the grounds that patient safety was being wholly compromised.
“We had received reports of high infection rates from the PIC, therefore we decided to cancel all surgical procedures in the hospital. We have started a rigorous cleaning protocol since the closure in order to eliminate the contaminated matter."
Furthermore, daily samples of surgical paraphernalia, water sources, and the air are also being taken in an attempt to guarantee adherence to established infection prevention protocols,” asserted Dr Akram.
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