If doctors start
dying, who will
look after patients?
KARACHI - Some female doctors in Karachi on Friday expressed dissatisfaction over government’s strategy and public indifference over national response to the coronavirus pandemic, “If doctors start dying, who will take care of the patients,” one of the female medics questioned while addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Friday.
At least six women doctors serving in different hospitals in Sindh reached the press club where they spoke to media persons and highlighted the dire condition of the healthcare system, which they explained was on the verge of a collapse, because hospitals were overflowing with patients and 80% of the beds were already occupied.
One of the medics who identified herself as Dr Safia said that it was not fair to treat one patient and leave another one to die. “We have been seeing people dying in front of us. This is really painful,” she said. “There are patients who were infected with the coronavirus and we were unable to do anything for them.”
She went on to say, “It is extremely painful to see people dying. Whoever dies was someone’s mother, a woman. About the reported projections, Dr Safia said that there would be a peak in the number of cases and “we tried to make a plateau” in the curve. She said the first lockdown was imposed in Sindh, for which we are thankful to the government of Sindh, for implementing effective lockdown.
Had there been no lockdown or a partial one, the healthcare system would have collapsed outright, she said. The locked down was eased early that’s why people got encouragement and started thinking that nothing is going to happen so let’s go out on the roads.
“That is totally wrong. If people keep visiting roads, this rate is going to rise rapidly,” she warned. “We have been witness to [the deaths] because we work in public hospitals. We’re getting patients and we are witnesses to the fact that deaths are rising. It’s an extremely challenging moment when we see young people dying.”
Some provincial governments, Dr Safia said, had done a commendable job, she emphasised that people must follow the lockdown instructions.
She said that by adopting preventive measures only for a month or a month and a half we can save lives of many people. “If we start following this properly, then we’ll get rid of this pandemic,” she said.
She said she removed her face mask only to speak. She also urged the media persons to wear masks all the time. “The virus can spread from mouth and that can happen while talking too and can infect anyone. I request you all to wear your masks wherever you go,” she said.
If doctors start
dying, who will
look after patients?
