Medical Specialists seek meeting with President to discuss serious concerns
The Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) has sought a meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at his earliest convenience to discuss serious concerns with regard to healthcare workers contracting COVID19 at healthcare institutions.
Alleging that their request to the Health Minister for a meeting, has “unfortunately” gone unheeded due to unknown reasons, the AMS states that its membership, serving all over the country in the public health service both in curative and preventive arms, is gravely concerned with the clusters and scattered cases of COVID-19 that have started surfacing recently.
“We also note that most of the cases are either asymptomatic or have minimal symptoms and both the quarantine and treatment centres are reaching maximum capacity. As a result, we feel that the approach may have to be modified to suit the changing trend,” the AMS, headed by Dr. L.A. Ranasinghe, has said.
Pointing out that sporadic cases of COVID-19 detected among healthcare workers have created a degree of apprehension and a sense of insecurity at their work places, the AMS states that it is further aggravated by the accounts they hear from colleagues who have had bitter experiences of harassment when they were exposed to infected patients.
The AMS states: “Nearly 10 months of the COVID19 experience around the world shows that healthcare workers (especially doctors) have suffered more due to the virus, having a several fold higher mortality rate due to repeated exposure as well as exposure to a higher viral load, compared to the general population.
“To allay their anxiety and to ensure uninterrupted services of our system, we suggest that PCR should be arranged for them without any delay or harassment. The entire process should be guided by the circulars issued by the Director-General of Health Services and all heads of health institutions should be instructed to adhere to them strictly
“It is equally important to expedite results for swift action to follow, if positive. When quarantine is indicated, we request that a special line of communication be established to deal with healthcare workers and advise authorities to accommodate them in suitable places depending on their official status.
“With the recent surge in numbers with the majority being asymptomatic, accommodating all positives in hospitals may become impracticable. Therefore, we request you to direct authorities to have non-hospital observational facilities ready for asymptomatic positives, so that hospital beds would become available for symptomatic COVID-19 patients. A disaster preparedness plan has to be in place to be activated if and when the need arises. It will also be essential to formulate stringent criteria for ICU admissions, if the bed capacity is projected to be overwhelmed.”