KARACHI:
The Sindh government on Saturday issued directives for all public hospitals to test their staff for Covid-19 and start coronavirus contact tracing again.
In a letter issued by Sindh Director General of Health Dr Irshad Ahmed Memon, a copy of which is available with The Express PAkGazette, directors of all public sector hospitals were asked to test hospital staff for coronavirus. their respective facilities as a priority. In addition, they have been instructed to continue testing for the diagnosis of other suspected cases of Covid-19.
Speaking to The Express PAkGazette, Dr Memon highlighted the need for all hospital employees to get tested, however, stating that Sindh had the least number of infected health department employees among the provinces.
Another health department official, who also stressed the need for an “immediate” review of health professionals, said the decision had come late.
“It is feared that the majority of health workers do not [properly] Follow standard operating procedures. “This ultimately leads to multiplying the number of infected people, even in remote areas,” he explained.
This was also confirmed by other officials, who noted that PCOS were particularly ignored in private clinics. They can then take the virus to public hospitals, officials added.
Saying that health department officials did their best to monitor healthcare workers and ensure that they followed SOPs, they noted that it was almost impossible to police private facilities.
According to the health department, there are 1,500 rapid response teams in Sindh collecting samples for Covid-19 testing, besides providing services at various healthcare centers and helping Covid-19 patients get admitted to hospitals.
“But after several of them contracted the infection, the number of tests conducted daily reduced,” a senior health department official explained. However, he added that other reasons also influenced the reduction in the number of tests. “[Following this]routine tests were interrupted,” he explained.
Speaking on the matter, Pakistan Medical Association General Secretary Dr Qaisar Sajjad also called for immediate screening of health professionals. “We had ordered it in March, but the orders have not been issued until now.”
He also opined that the government was creating confusion by reducing the number of tests.
“Although the number of tests [conducted daily] is decreasing, the number of cases is skyrocketing,” he observed, explaining that the lower number of reported cases had led to people ignoring SOPs.
“More than 60 percent of citizens have stopped wearing masks,” he said.
Contact tracking
When the health department also announced that it would restart Covid-19 contact tracing, a health department official told The Express PAkGazette that the exercise was stopped due to “some confusion”.
“But let’s start again so that [suspected] Cases can be traced and detected,” he confirmed.
The silence of the health department
Meanwhile, all senior department officials, including spokespersons, have reportedly been instructed not to speak to the media for unknown reasons. “Only a few are aware of this development,” a health official, on condition of anonymity, revealed to The Express PAkGazette. “We have been told not to share any information with the media.” He added that none of the department officials had access to the daily update on pandemic statistics provided by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.
“This is the only department on which the CM releases data,” the official said. “And even though we work in the health department, we don’t have access to it.”
Published in The Express PAkGazette, June 28th2020.
