Involve all public, private healthcare resources to fight Covid-19: DHEn urges PM

Doctors for Health and Environment (DHEn) has urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to involve all the country's public and private healthcare facilities and doctors in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

"If needed, coordination among healthcare institutions has to be ensured after forming teams of doctors, nurses and healthcare service workers centrally," it said in a statement today.

Seeking directives to tackle the pandemic, DHEn sent a letter of memorandum to the PM on May 11. In the letter, it sought the PM's intervention on several immediately achievable objectives.

The DHEn also urged the PM to ensure availability of safety gear and hygiene equipment including face masks and hand sanitisers for all, either free of cost or at an affordable price.

It sought government support to upgrade all public and private medical college pathological laboratories, including those private hospital labs which are equipped with RT-PCR, to "Bio-safety Level-2" for coronavirus test.

It said experienced microbiologists, biochemists and genetic engineers have to be involved in coronavirus tests. Alongside recruiting new doctors and nurses, sufficient technologists, cleaners and other health workers have to be recruited after ensuring their special training.

Steps with sufficient budget allocations have to be taken for research to know the genome sequence of the virus, based on Covid-19 samples found in Bangladesh, to determine the disease, its treatment, prevention, and antidote, DHEn said in the statement.

It said sufficient ICU and HDU beds as well as invasive and noninvasive ventilators have to be ensured in designated hospitals for Covid-19 treatment. Besides, uninterrupted supply of high-flow oxygen, therapy systems and finger pulse oximeters have to be ensured for the general beds.

Besides, "flu corner" and "OPD Triage System" have to be introduced in each hospital to ensure testing of suspected Covid-19 patients by keeping them in isolation bed. Moreover, sufficient personal protection equipment has to be ensured for emergency surgical and obstetrical healthcare service, it added.

Steps regarding prevention and treatment of coronavirus have to be taken effectively, using experience of those countries that were able to contain it quickly, said DHEn.

Area- and zone-based roadmaps have to be prepared for withdrawal and softening lockdown measures through advice from the "technical advisory committee" and related experts, as well as following the World Health Organisation guidelines and examples of successful countries, it said.