Reza Mahmud :
Doctors working as Covid, non-Covid and general practitioners in Bangladesh are still vulnerable due to insufficient safety measures and lack of maintaining infectious controlling protocol in hospitals.
Their families also are worried about their safety from infecting coronavirus.
Different studies say that medical professionals are 11 percent of the coronavirus cases in the country.
Sources said that 24 per cent doctors are yet to get Personal Safety Equipment, which have made them helpless against the virus infection in this pandemic.
A total of 52 doctors died of coronavirus so far, and nine more doctors died with Covid-19 like symptoms. Besides, 1,383 doctors are infected with the virus through out the country till Friday.
“Doctors working in Covid-19 dedicated
hospitals are more vulnerable. The most fatal place is the Intensive Care Units (ICU) for them as patients are spreading virus into rooms where doctors are passing five to eight hours everyday,” Dr. Md. Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury, Secretary General of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) told The New Nation on Friday.
He said, doctors working in ICU in Covid-19 patients are in peril because there are no negative pressure systems in our hospitals which could drive out all air from the rooms.
Dr. Ehteshamul Huq said that the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) only has the `negative pressure’ system in the country.
The BMA leader said, it is the matter of serious pain that the physicians, who are fighting to save patients, are falling sick to death everyday.
Doctors working in different hospitals tell us everyday that their families are worried and panicked over their risk of contaminations in every moment, Dr. Ehteshamul Huq added.
They phone and share their worriness with us as the BMA is the guardian organization of the physicians in the country, he said.
The BMA leader said that doctors who are working in Covid-19 dedicated hospitals are also facing pressures from hotel owners now.
Doctors who are providing medical treatment to virus infected patients are used to stay in residential hotels using those as quarantine spaces, because they have to stay away from their families and others.
Those doctors manage to do everything thyself and keep everything clean and okay in the hotel rooms without taking help of any staff. So, there are no questions to spread the virus from them in the hotels, but the owners are acting as deaf.
The BMA leader, however, said the matter is under process to resolve.
Bangladesh Doctors’ Foundation (BDF) Chairman Dr Shahed Rafi Pavel told the New Nation on Friday, “The measures taken to ensure doctors safety are not sufficient yet. The infectious control protocol is not maintained properly in the Covid-19 dedicated hospitals.”
As a result three physicians, on average, die everyday with dozens of infections, he added.
Dr Pavel said, “About 100 coronavirus infected patients are accommodated in a ward. Those patients are spreading virus in air of the room. To protect doctors and other health workers working there, the government should establish atleast hepa filters in those rooms to purify the air from the virus.”
“As there is no negative pressures to drive out the virus, setting the hepa filter will be workable as it can purify air seven times in a day,” Dr. Pavel said.
He also asked to establish separate health care facility to doctors amid rising infections among frontline health workers.
The BDF Chairman said, the demand for separate healthcare facility is getting louder following a rise in infections among the doctors especially those working at ICU while providing treatment to Covid-19 patients.
He also said that the quality of Personal Protection Equipment PPEs is not standard in different cases, so that the doctors are infected largely.
When contacted, Dr. Ayesha Akther, Assistant Director, Health Emergency Operation Center and Control Room, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told The New Nation on Friday, “The government has given utmost importance to ensure physicians safety during this combat of coronavirus outbreak.”
“The government is carefull to keep the doctors safe as they are the front liners in the pandemic,” she said.
Dr. Ayesha Akhter said, in the beginning many doctors did not use the PPE properly for which they became infected. Now most of them have been trained well to handle the PPE and other safety gears to protect themselves.
She also asked everyone including doctors and nurses to follow and handle carefully all safety measures during the coronavirus epidemic to protect themselves and to protect the people.
Doctors working as Covid, non-Covid and general practitioners in Bangladesh are still vulnerable due to insufficient safety measures and lack of maintaining infectious controlling protocol in hospitals.
Their families also are worried about their safety from infecting coronavirus.
Different studies say that medical professionals are 11 percent of the coronavirus cases in the country.
Sources said that 24 per cent doctors are yet to get Personal Safety Equipment, which have made them helpless against the virus infection in this pandemic.
A total of 52 doctors died of coronavirus so far, and nine more doctors died with Covid-19 like symptoms. Besides, 1,383 doctors are infected with the virus through out the country till Friday.
“Doctors working in Covid-19 dedicated
hospitals are more vulnerable. The most fatal place is the Intensive Care Units (ICU) for them as patients are spreading virus into rooms where doctors are passing five to eight hours everyday,” Dr. Md. Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury, Secretary General of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) told The New Nation on Friday.
He said, doctors working in ICU in Covid-19 patients are in peril because there are no negative pressure systems in our hospitals which could drive out all air from the rooms.
Dr. Ehteshamul Huq said that the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) only has the `negative pressure’ system in the country.
The BMA leader said, it is the matter of serious pain that the physicians, who are fighting to save patients, are falling sick to death everyday.
Doctors working in different hospitals tell us everyday that their families are worried and panicked over their risk of contaminations in every moment, Dr. Ehteshamul Huq added.
They phone and share their worriness with us as the BMA is the guardian organization of the physicians in the country, he said.
The BMA leader said that doctors who are working in Covid-19 dedicated hospitals are also facing pressures from hotel owners now.
Doctors who are providing medical treatment to virus infected patients are used to stay in residential hotels using those as quarantine spaces, because they have to stay away from their families and others.
Those doctors manage to do everything thyself and keep everything clean and okay in the hotel rooms without taking help of any staff. So, there are no questions to spread the virus from them in the hotels, but the owners are acting as deaf.
The BMA leader, however, said the matter is under process to resolve.
Bangladesh Doctors’ Foundation (BDF) Chairman Dr Shahed Rafi Pavel told the New Nation on Friday, “The measures taken to ensure doctors safety are not sufficient yet. The infectious control protocol is not maintained properly in the Covid-19 dedicated hospitals.”
As a result three physicians, on average, die everyday with dozens of infections, he added.
Dr Pavel said, “About 100 coronavirus infected patients are accommodated in a ward. Those patients are spreading virus in air of the room. To protect doctors and other health workers working there, the government should establish atleast hepa filters in those rooms to purify the air from the virus.”
“As there is no negative pressures to drive out the virus, setting the hepa filter will be workable as it can purify air seven times in a day,” Dr. Pavel said.
He also asked to establish separate health care facility to doctors amid rising infections among frontline health workers.
The BDF Chairman said, the demand for separate healthcare facility is getting louder following a rise in infections among the doctors especially those working at ICU while providing treatment to Covid-19 patients.
He also said that the quality of Personal Protection Equipment PPEs is not standard in different cases, so that the doctors are infected largely.
When contacted, Dr. Ayesha Akther, Assistant Director, Health Emergency Operation Center and Control Room, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told The New Nation on Friday, “The government has given utmost importance to ensure physicians safety during this combat of coronavirus outbreak.”
“The government is carefull to keep the doctors safe as they are the front liners in the pandemic,” she said.
Dr. Ayesha Akhter said, in the beginning many doctors did not use the PPE properly for which they became infected. Now most of them have been trained well to handle the PPE and other safety gears to protect themselves.
She also asked everyone including doctors and nurses to follow and handle carefully all safety measures during the coronavirus epidemic to protect themselves and to protect the people.
