FAISALABAD: The local chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association has warned if the district administration does not activate the tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospitals for handling Covid-19 patients, the main public healthcare facilities in Faisalabad will soon be rendered unable to bear the disease burden.

Presently, none of the four THQ hospitals in the district, one each at Tandlianwala, Samundri, Jaranwala and Chak Jhumrah, were handling coronavirus patients, forcing them to approach any of the three main government-run healthcare facilities in the city.

Initially only one facility -- General Hospital, Ghulam Muhammad Abad -- had been fixed for the treatment of the Covid-19 patients. However, given a surge in the cases, the Allied and district headquarters (DHQ) hospitals are being used for the treatment of such patients.

The city has so far reported 1899 positive cases and the virus death toll has reached 62.

PMA Faidalabad chapter secretary Dr Muhammad Irfan criticising the district administration said it failed to activate the THQ hospitals for handling Covid-19 patients despite passage of more than three months since the first coronavirus positive case was reported in the district.

He said the administration should also have set up quarantine centre on the city outskirts to check spread of the disease.

He said the administration should set up high dependency units (HDUs) and intensive care units (ICUs) at all the THQ hospitals and training session for doctors should be arranged as early as possible to enable them to handle Covid-19 patients.

Dr Irfan said the THQ hospitals by handling Corona cases locally could also check spread of the virus as patients from remote villages and tehsils headquarters usually travel to the city by public transport and transmit the virus during their journey to Faisalabad.

The PMA secretary apprehended that the teaching hospitals would soon collapse under the Covid-19 patients’ burden if the THQ hospitals were not involved in battle against the pandemic as private hospitals were quite expensive for most of the patients.

“We still have time to use all the THQ hospitals for the treatment of Covid-19 patients as the situation could worse in the days to come,” he warned.

He said the PMA had also advised the administration against using the hotels in the city and the University of Agriculture Faisalabad hostels as the quarantine centres as this approach could contributed to a rapid spread of virus, but the advice was ignored by the bureaucracy.

He said due to surge in Covid-patients patients, around 150 doctors of the three main hospitals had so far been infected, demanding special arrangements for protecting the doctors against the disease.

A doctor serving in the Samundri THQ Hospital said the facility could treat the Covid-19 patients, but it was not used for the purpose.

Young Doctors Association (YDA) Faidalabad chapter Secretary Dr Adnan Shakir also regretted that despite having ample beds and qualified doctors, the THQ hospitals were not being used for the Covid-19 patients. He said the patients could be quarantined and treated at the THQ hospitals by training the staff in this regard.

“We have been serving the ailing people at the Allied Hospital with meager facilities,” he lamented, rapping the government for its “poor planning” to fight the pandemic.

Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali did not reply to phone calls and messages of this scribe for his version.

District administration spokesman said six beds had been allocated in each THQ hospital for Covid-19 patients since a surge in the case after Eid.

He said only serious patients were being referred from THQ hospitals to major hospitals in the city.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2020

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