KMC-run hospitals lack safety kits   

KARACHI: The Sindh Government and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) have failed to provide personal protective equipment (PPEs) to doctors, nurses, paramedics, and others working round the clock to fight against the coronavirus pandemic in KMC-run health facilities.

The medical staff of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Sarfaraz Rafiqui Shaheed (SRS), Sobhraj Maternity Hospital, Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases, Leprosy Hospital Manghopir, Spencer Eye Hospital, Landhi Medical Complex, Gazdarabad General Hospital, and others, are performing duties without any safety gloves, masks, aprons, sanitizers, and other safety precautions.

Although, some rescue organizations, including the Al-Khidmat Foundation and others, have provided safety kits to doctors and other staff working in the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) as well as other hospitals. The majority of doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff have been deprived of PPE since the start of the coronavirus emergency in these health facilities, however.

Sources at the ASH noted that the doctors and support staff working in these KMC-run hospitals are performing their duties under immense stress and pressure because their lives are at risk. In the present situation, they are examining patients at the cost of their and their family’s lives.

They said doctors, nurses, and paramedics have been reluctant to continue their job in the hospital under such circumstances. The provision of personal protection equipment is the responsibility of the Sindh Government and the KMC.

Sources noted that a lady doctor had tested positive for the coronavirus at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital a few days ago. Panic and fear prevail amongst the staff working at these KMC hospitals due to the lack of safety equipment.

Senior Director, Medical and Health Services Department, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Dr Salma Kauser, said that personal protective equipment (PPE) is being provided to the staff and support who are screening suspected coronavirus patients. She further informed that Mayor Karachi, Commissioner Karachi, and various rescue organizations had provided PPE for doctors and other staff as well.

-MN Report