Islamabad Police deprived of coronavirus care facility

Islamabad : The Islamabad Police has been compelled to handover the 10-bed special ‘coronavirus detection and isolation ward’ to the Federal Government Services Polyclinic as no doctor, appointed there to run and manage the facility, is ready to perform duties.

It was learnt that the special facility was established in the Police Line Headquarters dispensary of Islamabad Police in Sector H-11 and the management/operations were the responsibility of the Polyclinic.

The Polyclinic administration appointed Dr Masood Ghani as in-charge of the facility. However, as Dr Masood Ghani is a cardiac patient and had undergone open-heart surgery, he excused himself of taking over the responsibility.

The Polyclinic administration deputed Dr Imtiaz in his place but according to Polyclinic sources, instead of taking over the charge Dr Imtiaz went on leave, abandoning the health facility for Islamabad Police in the Police Lines dispensary.

Sources in police say that the Inspector-General Islamabad Police decided to handover the management of the special ward to Polyclinic to use it for general patients, depriving the Islamabad Police officials a much needed facility. As a result there is no assessment if there are any Islamabad Police officials infected with ‘coronavirus’.

However, when Dr Imtiaz was contacted he said that he was supervising the facility.

Answering a question, Dr Imtiaz said in this facility only those police officials are kept under observation for a 10-day period who are returning from other parts of the country or even within Islamabad who are reporting for their duties at the end of their leaves.

He also said the ‘coronavirus test’ facility is not available with the Polyclinic and if required those tests would be sent to the PIMS as it is their responsibility. Meanwhile, the police sources said that so far no police official has been referred to undergo ‘coronavirus’ test.

The Senior Superintendent of Police-Headquarters (SSP-HQ), Irfan Tariq when contacted said that the information was not based on facts. He claimed that all necessary arrangements are being made for protection and treatment of Islamabad Police officials.

“Any official who may show symptoms of the virus is instantly referred to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) to undergo required test. So far 200 officials of Islamabad Police have been referred to the PIMS out of which only six were retained for observation. All six were also discharged after they were cleared following necessary tests,” SSP (Headquarters) Irfan Tariq said.

However, he added that those six officials are being kept in isolation for a certain period of time.