PHOTO: AFP/FILE
KARACHI: Over a dozen suspected coronavirus sufferers from throughout the town had been denied entry into private and non-private hospitals in Karachi, The Categorical Tribune learnt on Wednesday.
“The number of suspected patients is going up as each day passes,” stated Edhi Basis chairperson Faisal Edhi. “The hospitals have been refusing to take them in since Tuesday,” he disclosed, including that Edhi staff had been advised that the hospitals didn’t have the amenities to take them in.
Chatting with the Categorical Tribune, Edhi stated that his basis’s ambulances had been transporting these sufferers to the hospitals after which taking them again to their houses after they had been turned away from the medical amenities.
Nevertheless, Dr Khadim Hussain Qureshi, the medical superintendent of Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, claimed that not a single affected person had been refused admission. “We cannot say no to any patient.”
Tales of survivors: How I grew to become Pakistan’s first COVID-19 affected person
Dr Qureshi advised The Categorical Tribune that sufferers suspected of getting COVID-19 had been admitted, although a number of of them opted to isolate themselves at their residences and had been allowed to go. “Even those who stay at home, though, are being checked up on regularly,” he said, including that his hospital was not but burdened within the ongoing disaster. “We are still functioning smoothly.”
Sharing information, he stated that 9 suspected sufferers had been dropped at the hospital on Tuesday, of whom three had been discharged after remedy. “We are providing the best possible care to each patient, including those who are suspected of having the virus,” he insisted.
In the meantime, Anjum Rizvi, the spokesperson at Liaquat Nationwide Hospital, one of many metropolis’s main non-public hospitals, stated that that they had curtailed the out-patient departments (OPDs), in keeping with the Sindh authorities’s directives, to keep away from an extreme turnout of sufferers. “Only emergency cases and those in urgent need of a doctor are being received,” he defined.
He added that the hospital didn’t have coronavirus testing kits, saying that this was the explanation why sufferers with COVID-19 signs weren’t contacting them.
Who’s receiving sufferers?
Sindh well being division spokesperson Meeran Yousuf advised The Categorical Tribune that there have been solely three hospitals within the metropolis able to receiving coronavirus sufferers. Of those, she added, the Aga Khan College Hospital was at the moment not admitting sufferers.
The remaining two hospitals – Dow Hospital’s Ojha campus and the Indus Hospital – weren’t solely admitting sufferers but in addition conducting diagnostic checks. Nevertheless, Yousuf defined that Dow’s Ojha campus was busy coping with pending checks, together with these of pilgrims from the Taftan border. “Only the Indus Hospital is taking in patients.”
No coronavirus case was imported from China: PM Imran
She suggested that these suspected sufferers who had been capable of keep at dwelling in isolation ought to achieve this, as an alternative of speeding to the hospital. “If someone is living with their family and cannot afford to isolate themselves separately, they can go to the isolation centre,” she added.
She additionally disclosed that the well being division was contemplating offering testing amenities to a different main hospital within the provincial capital – the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).
In the meantime, JPMC government director Dr Seemin Jamali stated that sufferers had been consistently arriving on the hospital. Nevertheless, she said, the variety of sufferers visiting the OPDs and emergency had dropped because of the province-wide lockdown that has been imposed by the Sindh authorities in an try and curtail the unfold of coronavirus.
“However, despite clear guidelines issued by the government and health authorities, attendants with patients appear to be reluctant to obey orders,” she complained, including that regulation enforcement companies ought to help the hospitals in proscribing the entry of too many attendants.
Revealed in The Categorical Tribune, March 26th, 2020.
