Daily Times

As the world begins to return to normalcy, Pakistan’s healthcare system struggles to cope with the current pandemic. Hospitals and healthcare workers face the challenge of defeating the virus. Equipped with limited resources, an existing faulty government system, poverty, corruption and worse, a nation primarily consisting of ignorant individuals who refuse to comply to following preventive measures…the motivation to keep battling will eventually simmer down if the people of the country vent out on the only fortes that have been our armour in this time of need.

Pakistani hospitals have consistently been on their toes since the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in the country. Private institutes like South City Hospital were the first to jump into planning extensive measures as they foresaw what the coming months were going to bring forth. Dr. Saadia Virk (CEO of South City Hospital), discussed the various measures her hospital took to help fight the virus, “On 27th February, when the first case of coronavirus came to Pakistan, we sat down and started thinking, deciding as well as planning what had to be done. There was no time to waste, decisions had to be taken fast and a planned strategy had to be created. Patients, healthcare workers and staff…the safety of all stakeholders is and always will be our priority. We have invested heavily on demarcating a geographically separate unit dedicated for Covid-19. The hospital has gone through extensive architectural changes too including installation of negative pressure units, a new ER, separation of consultant clinics, and increased capacity to accommodate more Covid-19 patients because the country was obviously in dire need of it. We are also conducting screenings regularly for patients, healthcare workers and staff to ensure the hospital remains a safe zone for all those who are visiting.”

Even with all these efforts, one fails to understand why our social media still continues to amp the negative remarks pointing fingers towards private institutes who have already been going the extra mile. We have observed many remarks questioning the cost of treatment at private institutes. However, one can’t help but point out the obvious, private hospitals are a choice. Private institutes providing healthcare are run by individuals who are sole sponsors and thus do not benefit from any sort of government funding or donations. “The private hospitals are at our own mercy without any support from the government except for the state bank who gave us loans promptly on interest. There is no support, tax relief, subsidies not even uninterrupted supplies of water to help with the washing of our Covid patient’s laundry etc.,” explains Dr. Saadia Virk.

The current pandemic has been one of the country’s biggest challenges. Our private healthcare institutes continue to face various hurdles including limited supply of the basic vital resources needed to fight Covid-19 (such as oximeters, oxygen cylinders, protective gear, testing kits and more); maintaining human resources; educating the country with basics of good hygiene; protecting healthcare workers and staff from not just the virus but also the nation itself. Private hospitals like South City Hospital continue to raise the bar by also giving an opportunity to other hospitals to learn from especially when planning effective systems that help create safe platforms for people in need with whatever their pockets can afford).

Therefore, rather than creating more negativity, one needs to recognize the efforts of private hospitals going the extra mile to create safe zones and providing quality healthcare for the country. They are the fortresses we need when battling with highly infectious enemies like COVID-19.