The Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor on Tuesday demanded to set up freestanding emergency rooms in every town of the megacity Karachi to cater coronavirus patients.
In a statement, he said it is sad that that government hospital near NIPA Chowrangi is yet to be completed despite lapse of many years. He demanded to immediately set up a freestanding emergency center in the building of NIPA hospital, besides opening free standing ERs in every locality of the megacity.
He said Karachi with only three government hospitals to deal with trauma care is a nightmare for the patients with emergency treatment needs during corona virus season, and the megacity urgently needs at least half a dozen of freestanding ERs in different localities to save lives.
He said as a few private hospitals with trauma care facilities are very costly and out of reach of common man; resultantly, the whole load of emergency and trauma care of the megacity falls on the shoulders of three major government hospitals, Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) and AbbasiShaheed Hospital (ASH), which now burst at the seams. He regretted that many critically injured patients being shifted from far-flung suburban areas to these hospitals simply die on the way. Shakoor said it needs about one hour to shift a patient from Bin Qasim or Landhi area to the JMPC and a critically injured patient could hardly survive while the ambulance covers this distance.
