Daily Times

Medical staff of ICU at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS Hospital) has been disappeared since last night, after which patients are facing serious problems.

According to the sources, patients at Pakistan’s biggest hospital (PIMS) were left unattended due to lack of medical staff while relatives of the patients are also worried.

The patients’ families protested that patients were not being taken care of properly and medicines are also not provided on time.

Sources further revealed that relatives are forced to change their blood bottles and provide medicines to patients themselves while the entire hospital is empty of medical staff.

But as the crisis reaches what is expected to be its most dangerous period, doctors’ and nurses’ groups say their members are being expected to take unacceptable risks.

“That’s the travesty of this situation, that the government needs to protect frontline health workers and in return they will give 100%. But the government hasn’t kept its side of the bargain with NHS staff by not having enough PPE available to safeguard the health of doctors and nurses,” said one of the doctors.

Earlier, the medical staff also signaled its deep unease with the serious shortages of PPE and said the issue could compel nurses to choose between their jobs and their safety.

Organisations representing hospital doctors, nurses, paramedics, GPs and midwives have all voiced fears for their safety in recent days, prompting government and citizens to deliver millions of pieces of protective clothing to hospitals.

The fresh concerns came as six doctors, who are working at the Nishtar Hospital, have tested positive for the COVID-19 in Multan, taking the tally of infected doctors to 23 in the city.

The infected doctors were immediately shifted to the isolation ward after testing positive for the coronavirus.  Moreover, Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid asserted that infected doctors were not involved in treating any COVID-19 patients as there is no coronavirus ward in the hospital. One of the doctors, who contracted the virus from his father, infected other doctors, she maintained.