THE ongoing pandemic has divulged deficiency, corruption, mismanagement in the country’s health sector and hit a hard slap in the tale of ‘development surprise’. When public health experts asked for preparedness before the outbreak, some top ministers were in believe that Covid-19 would not infect in the country and assured people of taking huge arrangement than USA, China and EU countries. Such insincerity and reluctance cause snail phase of preparation like having only 399 ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds for critical Covid-19 patients. The indifference of policymakers and bureaucratic tangle is responsible for lack of proper treatment in hospitals.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) also prepared 13,284 isolation beds and 112 kidney dialysis beds across the country. On the other hand, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country jumped to 57,563 on Thursday, which is 1,985 times higher than the cases recorded on March 24. Insiders and public health experts said the number of beds is too small to deal with all critical patients, as the infected cases have been rising so sharply since April 15. The lack of adequate preparation on the part of the government and the existing weak healthcare facilities are among the major reasons behind the death of so many Covid-19 patients in the country.
Public hospitals in divisional cities have only 10 to 20 ICU beds each, which is very negligible compared to the daily growth rate of the coronavirus patients. Besides, the public sector is highly dearth of a skilled health professional to deal with the ICU beds, meaning if the government set up ICU beds it would not be properly operated. This is the outcome of weak planning, implementation and monitoring and unbridled corruption over the last 10-15 years. In January 2019, the Anti-Corruption Commission revealed 11 causes of corruption and suggested 25 points for not repeating curtain and pillow scams but evidence showed we did not heed to the call. If this pandemic fails to realise us our negligence, corruption and lack of sincere, we must pay high in return.
