LAHORE: The Pakistan Institute of Kidney and Liver Transplant (PKLI) is refusing to admit critical patients of Covid-19, making a strange excuse that the Punjab health authorities have stopped it from taking patients without a ‘reference letter’ of the health department.

The institute is making several patients wait at the central gate to send them back disappointed on finding no reference letters despite having vacant beds. The denial of treatment to those being taken there in ambulances or on private vehicles in serious condition is putting their lives at grave risk due to the delayed treatment.

The PKLI has 83 beds and 13 of them are still vacant and if the health department wants them to remain vacant by refusing treatment to critical patients, the question arises for whom these beds are being kept vacant.

Denies treatment to critical patients despite vacant beds; seeks ‘reference letter’ from health authorities

A patient, Jamil Faizi, was referred to the PKLI from the Services Hospital late night on June 1 due to short breathing issues. Due to unavailability of bed, the Services Hospital had shifted him to the PKLI in a Rescue 1122 ambulance. However, the PKLI staff refused to let the patient enter the institute and demanded a reference letter.

“We showed a reference letter of the Services Hospital’s emergency ward along with the discharge slip of the doctors but the PKLI staff refused to admit our patient,” Jamil’s brother, Jawad Faizi, told Dawn.

He said when they insisted, saying that the patient was in serious condition, the official at the reception made them wait for 15 minutes more in the ambulance in the name of ‘an inquiry’. He took the documents inside the institute, came back after 15 minutes and told the attendant of the patient that the on-duty doctor at the PKLI had refused to accept the documents of the Services Hospital.

The official asked them to bring a reference letter of Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid or the secretary health to get their patient admitted, Mr Jawad said.

After an exchange of words with the duty staff, he took his brother back to the Services Hospital in critical condition.

“The next day, Jamil was referred to the Mayo Hospital because of unavailability of beds in the corona section of the Services Hospital,” he said and added that as they reached the Mayo Hospital, his brother collapsed and the doctors put him on the ventilator due to delayed treatment.

“Since then, my brother has been struggling for life,” Mr Jawad said and criticised the government for not generating system to get update on the unavailability of beds for the coronavirus patients.

Condition of another Covid-19 patient, Fayaz Akhtar (58), from Shaukat Town, Ghazi Road, got serious when the PKLI denied him admission on the same grounds.

“We took our patient to the Lahore General Hospital where the doctors refused to admit him due to space problem,” Fayaz’s brother, Gulzar, told Dawn. He said they later shifted him to the Jinnah Hospital where the doctors admitted him to the emergency ward on June 2.

The duty-doctors told them the hospital had no space to accommodate him for more than a day and they would to manage the patient at emergency unit.

Later, they visited the PKLI, which had vacant beds, but the institute refused to accept the reference of the Jinnah Hospital.

He said the PKLI asked for ‘a reference letter’ of the health department. As they could not get the reference letter and the patient was discharged from the Jinnah Hospital, they shifted him to a private hospital in Johar Town where he was struggling for life when doctors put him on ventilator due to delayed treatment.

When contacted, PKLI spokesperson Tazeen Qureshi told Dawn total 83 beds have been allocated for Covid-19 patients at the institute, including eight in the intensive care unit.

For admission policy, he asked this reporter to contact PKLI focal person Dr Javed Hayat who said he was not authorised person and asked this correspondent to contact the Punjab health department for the purpose. However, giving details of the beds in the PKLI, he said it had 83 beds, of them 70 were filled while 13 were still vacant.

A spokesperson for the health department said the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department had introduced a ‘flawless referral system’ to accommodate patients at the state-run hospitals and there might be some problems at the side of the patients and their attendants.

Since most of the patients wanted treatment at the PKLI, the central command and control system had been established at the Mayo Hospital Lahore to address the issue of patient load management, he said.

However, the mystery still remains to be solved if all other public hospitals are filled to their capacity and the PKLI has vacant beds, for whom they are being kept vacant.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2020