After Pakistan joined the countries with coronavirus deaths, it is becoming increasingly clear that self-isolation and distancing is the only way to keep the virus at bay.<\/p>\n
“Your healthcare system is not equipped to support you,” pronounced overworked and sleep-deprived Dr Shobha Luxmi, an infectious diseases specialist at Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi (DUHS).<\/p>\n
“And if the system does not support its own staff, do you think it will support you?” she asked and then in the same breath added: “Take charge of your health; stay at home and keep your children at home!”<\/p>\n
But then Pakistan’s healthcare system was never designed, even on paper, for emergency response preparedness. “Our hospitals are not planned for it, people are not trained, isolation facilities are not there and there is no contingency plan. The system is as old as 1947 and we never thought to revise or improve it,” Dr Luxmi said, not mincing any words.<\/p>\n
The private hospitals are no better, she said. “Those are merely commercial organisations.”<\/p>\n
“We are not prepared for this type of public health emergency and we will never be prepared if our health expenditure remains static at 3%,” points out Dr Ahsan Jamil, deputy general manager, clinical affairs, medical directorate at The Indus Health Network.<\/p>\n
“The ground realities clearly indicate that our capacities are restricted and something on a war footing is needed as a desperate measure,” he adds.<\/p>\n
For now and according to a recent report from NDMA, across the country there are 15 testing facilities, a total of 8,718 beds available in quarantine, 2,058 beds in isolation, and 35 designated COVID-19 tertiary care hospitals. For a country of 200 million, this is a drop in the ocean.<\/p>\n