KMC hospital staff working without PPEs  

KARACHI: Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) run hospitals have been facing an acute shortage of personal protective equipment (PPEs); however, the KMC and Sindh government have failed to provide PPEs to healthcare providers.

The doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff working in the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD), Sobhraj Maternity Hospital, Spencer Eye Hospital, Sarfraz Rafique Shaheed Hospital, and others have not been provided with PPEs to protect themselves from the coronavirus during the second wave.  

The medical staff of these health facilities has been performing duties without safety gloves, masks, aprons, sanitizers, and other safety kits. The doctors and supporting staff working in KMC hospitals perform their duties under stress and pressure because their lives were at risk. In the present situation, they examined patients at the cost of their lives and their families.

Doctors, nurses, and paramedics have also been reluctant to continue their job in hospitals in such circumstances. 

The spokesperson of the Young Doctors Association (YDA), ASH, said that the provision of personal protection equipment was the responsibility of the Sindh government and the KMC, but they have failed to provide PPEs during the second wave of COVID-19. 

Medical Superintendent, ASH, Dr Nadeem Rajpot, said that there was no shortage of personal protective equipment (PPEs) in hospitals, and the Sindh government had already been notified for the provision of more PPEs for the medical staff.    

-MN Report