LAHORE: The Syndicate of University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Wednesday approved the allocation of 9,600 free beds for Covid-19 patients in private sector teaching hospitals of Punjab and Azad Jamu & Kashmir, affiliated with the varsity.

Of the total beds, 600 would be allocated in the intensive care units (ICUs) of private hospitals where the poor patients must be treated free of cost as per the regulations of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the UHS.

The decision was taken in the marathon 58th meeting of the Syndicate where the provision of free treatment for coronavirus patients was one of the 53 points of the agenda.

During the five-hour meeting it was decided that the UHS, being the largest public sector health university, must play its due role to help out the patients in the developing pandemic situation, particularly in Punjab.

After prolonged discussions, the UHS Syndicate unanimously approved invoking the clause regarding the affiliation of private institutions with the university, whereby it is mandatory for these colleges to have 550 bed teaching hospitals with ICU facilities.

Private institutes reject VC’s free treatment claim

The private colleges, under the same clause, are also bound to provide 50 percent free of cost treatment to the needy patients.

All the affiliated institutions shall submit a compliance report to the UHS Syndicate within 72 hours, including photographs of the facility.

“This is a very bold initiative on the part of the UHS and amounts to changing the history of healthcare in Pakistan,” UHS Vice Chancellor Prof Javed Akram who presided over the meeting told Dawn.

He said the UHS must be patient-centric during the crisis and stand with the patients and their families. He appealed to the managements of these private sector hospitals to comply with the directions of the varsity Syndicate.

He pledged full UHS support to the hospitals viz-a-viz human resource, infrastructure, personal protection equipment (PPE), medicines etc.

Prof Akram said the UHS, along with this notification, would be sending 300 PPE to private hospitals free of cost for the protection of healthcare professionals working there.

The varsity has so far raised more than Rs50 million donations and has distributed more than 5,000 PPE per day to hospitals during the last couple of months.

He said the Covid-19 patients would be provided free of cost treatment at these private hospitals under supervision of professors of medicine.

“Similarly, the professors of pathology and radiology of these affiliated colleges shall be responsible to carry out diagnostic tests of the patients free of cost”, the UHS VC said.

The members who attended the meeting included Prof Khwaja Sadiq Hussain, Prof Sajid Maqbool, Prof Abdul Nasir Shah, Dr Saqib Mehmood and representatives of Punjab health and finance departments.

Two other senior medics -- Prof Waheedul Hameed and Prof Humaira Akram -- joined through video link.

Prof Akram said that all the meeting participants endorsed the decision, terming it a major relief for the Covid-19 patients struggling hard to get beds in the government hospitals.

He said that it was also decided that the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) would be approached for inspection of these hospitals to assess whether or not they were equipped to treat corona patients.

The Syndicate decided to give a free hand to UHS VC in that regard, he said and assured that all-out efforts would be made for the provision of free beds to Covid-19 patients at these private teaching hospitals within the next couple of days.

Punjab chapter of the Pakistan Association of Medical and Dental Institutions (Pami) president Dr Javaid Asghar, however, claimed there was no legal provision for free treatment of Covid-19 patients at the private hospitals affiliated with the UHS.

He made it clear that the private institutions could not bear the expenses of a Covid patient’s treatment.

“We have offered free beds only, leaving it up to the UHS or the government to bear expenses of the treatment of virus patients”, Dr Javaid said, adding that the Covid-19 treatment was much expensive than that of any other disease.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2020