PESHAWAR: The closure of elective services and outpatient departments in hospitals by the government to focus on proper diagnosis of Covid-19 patients has added to the agony of chronically-ill people, who require regular medical checkups, according to patients’ relatives and doctors.

The problem of non-Covid-19 patients is that they don’t find doctors in hospitals and clinics to undergo routine checkups and get the desired medication.

“My mother has hepatitis and diabetes from the past few years but the physician treating her is neither available in hospital nor in his clinic. We are facing dilemma what to do as she needs to be seen by the same doctor,” Sanaullah Khan, a resident of Mardan, told this scribe.

According to him, the Punjab government has ordered opening of OPDs in government hospitals and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should follow suit to facilitate the patients.

A government officer said that one of his relatives suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis and was under the care of chest physicians but owing to non-availability of treating doctors in hospital OPD, he was staying in his home waiting for examination. “The patient belong to Kohat and cannot go back,” he said.

Non-coronavirus patients can’t find doctors in hospitals and clinics

A senior physician said that the patients suffering from diseases other than Covid-19 had to undergo more problems as they wouldn’t be able to seek proper consultation during the lockdown and subsequent closure of OPDs and clinics.

“From where can they get consultation and proper checkup in a situation of lockdown for full four weeks? There are diseases more serious and easily treatable than coronavirus, requiring urgent management,” he said.

The physician said that government should come up with a plan to save the people with chronic ailments from more health issues and trouble. “Why don’t we bifurcate the hospital services in Covid-19 and non-Covid-19? I am sure in coming days test for Covid-19 would be freely available with results coming much earlier,” he added.

A retired physician said that he had a patient with possible encephalitis and another with Dural Sinus Thrombosis requiring urgent MRI that wasn’t available due to the scare of Covid-19.

He said that surgeons were scared to operate on patients with abdominal emergencies. He added patients with acute bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis were turned back due to the same reasons that caused more health complications.

“We need to reduce the number of patients coming to public sector institutions with possible prior appointment or referral but fully closing down elective services and OPD isn’t a wise decision,” he said.

The retired physician said that most of the specialists sat idle in homes and wanted to work but the decision to allow them lied with the government.

The telemedicine programme in the province can solve part of the problem but not the whole because the chronic and elderly patients required examinations at regular intervals.

The hospitals where the facility is available can start OPD on lawns like that of oncology department of Hayatabad Medical Complex where 100 cancer patients are checked per day.

“We should make face mask compulsory for both the patients and attendants and restrict the latter but should start OPD only for patients with the illnesses that can snowball into major issues if not treated timely,” a senior surgeon told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2020