COVID-19 and its Challenges for the Healthcare System in Pakistan

Abstract

This article aims to highlight the healthcare issues raised by COVID-19 in Pakistan’s scenario. Initially, Pakistan lacked “standard operating procedures,” and the government had to ship testing kits from China and Japan. Moreover, due to violations of the lockdown and standard operating procedures (SOPs), the rapidly increasing number of cases created a burden on the healthcare system. More and more, this pandemic and its impact have grown. As vaccine development has not been successful yet, “herd immunity” can only be achieved if about three quarters of the population contract the virus—requiring immunocompromised citizens to be sacrificed for the sake of the country. Moreover, Pakistan has limited testing capacity, so most COVID-19 tests are missing their mark even as the virus spreads. The current scenario is also raising several concerns about the capacity of the government to tackle the prevailing healthcare crisis. In this regard, healthcare professionals suggest that the government must act responsibly to ensure better security provided to healthcare professionals. Identifying suspected cases, introducing personal protective equipment, and taking administrative measures to ensure that better security is provided to healthcare professionals are the needs of the hour to improve outcomes of COVID-19 patients. Testing, tracking, and lockdowns must be focused on areas where clusters are detected. The healthcare professionals must be given utmost protection before this pandemic could wreak havoc in terms of fatalities. Investing in the chronically underfunded healthcare system is needed, so that Pakistan can build capacity to fight the pandemic.

Evaluation of Covid-19 Pandemic in Azad Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan

“…The quantity and quality of the health workforce are positively associated with various health service outcomes 17 . As Pakistan is listed among "Low-density-high-mortality" countries, the overall density of the health care workforce is well below the threshold level of 2.5 workers per 1,000 population 12,18 . As of 2019, there are 3705 doctors working in AJ&K so the doctor to population ratio in AJK (one doctor for every 3893 person) is much higher than the national average (one doctor per 1038 persons) 19 .…”

COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: An Analysis of the Healthcare, Socio-Economic Challenges in Pakistan

“…Later three months of the COVID-19 epidemic in Pakistan, until the government of Pakistan received primers, test kits and equipment from other countries, few specific quarantine centers had imperfect diagnostic and treatment facilities. As of June 27, 2020, many test centers have opened in Pakistan (Khalid & Sana, 2020).…”

Bidding farewell to 2020: what lessons have we learned and what can bioethics continue to teach us?

“…As also indicated previously, many of these now seek to capture and reflect country-by-country responses to the pandemic, and we anticipate the value of a trenchant comparative analysis in due course. For now, our readers will find contributions from an intriguing range of countries, including India from Arunachalam and Halwai (2020), Bangladesh from Siraj et al (2020), and Pakistan from Khalid and Ali (2020). We are particularly heartened that this last contribution enriches our Student Voices section of the journal-we encourage more students to submit to the journal and we guarantee supportive feedback in return.…”