LAHORE: More than 150 doctors, nurses and paramedical staff of Services Hospital, Lahore (SHL) have been infected with Covid-19.
In a letter to the SHL management, president SHL chapter of Young Doctors Association (YDA) Dr Imran said that in last seven days almost above 100 doctors of SHL have been infected with Covid-19 fighting on frontline, leading to acute shortage of working doctors. Many nurses and paramedical staff members have also been diagnosed with Covid-19 positive.
Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that the positivity ratio among healthcare workers in Punjab has also reached 12 per cent with a total of 2,778 doctors, nurses, paramedics and ancillary staff confirmed with coronavirus in hospitals in the province. Currently at Services Hospital Lahore, Dr Imran said, the departments of Medicine, Pulmonology and Anesthesia wards are dealing with more than 150 beds dedicated for Covid-19 patients in addition to their regular duties.
Keeping in view the 3rd wave of Covid-19 and shortage of doctors, YDA SHL demands the following measures to be taken immediately: the management must issue Covid-19 roster across the hospital, Covid-19 PCR for elective surgical list, limitation of OPD slips per day, recruitment of MOs, WMOs and Covid-19 consultants, risk allowance for all doctors of Services Hospital Lahore, and vaccination of all doctors of SHL. The YDA SHL demands administration of SHL to take prompt action on above mentioned measures within 24 hours positively. “After that the next policy will be announced by YDA SHL,” said Dr Imran. When contacted, SHL Medical Superintendent Dr Muhammad Zahid confirmed Covid-19 infections among doctors and other medical staff with recent surge in the coronavirus cases in third wave of the pandemic.
“The doctors are most vulnerable to the disease as they have to deal with all kinds of patients in the hospital,” he said, adding that Covid fatigue had started to show among doctors and medical staff, which led to non-compliance of protective measures among them despite availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other protective paraphernalia. He said the hospital management would introduce new Covid-19 roster for doctors, reduce OPD visits and elective lists and ensure PCR for patients requiring surgical interventions as well as other necessary measures.
About fulfilling the shortage of doctors, nurses and other medical staff members after most of them were compelled to quarantine themselves, the MS said that, besides internal arrangements, the hospital administration had also sought Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department’s (SHC&MED) intervention to meet the shortage of doctors, nurses and medical staff in the hospital.
