A shortage or lack of supply of adequate personal protective equipment (PPEs) continues to cripple frontline healthcare workers even as they work in an unsafe environment treating Covid-19 suspects or patients across Bangladesh.
The authorities or top officials at different medical college hospitals in the country say that despite following all the directives issued by the DGHS, they are struggling to protect the health workers in the battle against coronavirus as they lack optimal protection gear.
Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital Director Brig Gen Kazi Md Rashid Un Nabi said: “We cannot protect our doctors and health workers without enough PPEs as patients continue to visit us even though we are not a Covid-19 dedicated hospital.”
Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) Principal Dr Abdul Ahad said: “We have enough PPEs, a PCR machine and testing kits but we are yet to get N95 respirators and surgical masks [face masks]. The doctors and other medical staff are working in a situation fraught with risks.”
On April 18, the DGHS directed the authorities of Covid-19 dedicated hospitals to introduce a new roster by segmenting healthcare workers into three groups to protect them from exhaustion and maximize their capacity.
According to the new roster, one group of healthcare workers will be on duty for 10 days.
Then they will be in quarantine for 14 days and spend time with their families for the next 6 days. During these 20 days two other groups will be on duty and then they will repeat the same schedule.
According to this new roster, the health workers will be working for 10 days in a month and take time to recuperate in the remaining 20 days.
All Covid-19 dedicated hospital authorities have claimed to have adopted this new routine.
Dr Ahad said the doctors were further divided into three groups based on their seniority while on duty to attend the patients.
The doctors are not exposed at the same time to reduce the chance of infection, he explained.
Moreover, they turned the Diabetics Hospital into a Covid-19 dedicated hospital. Besides, selected three star hotels were prepared as quarantine centres for doctors, nurses, and other staff, Dr Ahad added.
The authorities at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital and Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital echoed the KMCH principal on the issue.
Chittagong Medical College Hospital Principal Prof Dr Mohammad Shameem Hasan said the hospital had designated an isolated area where doctors and other health workers were attending to patients and sending them to Covid-19 dedicated hospitals if they suspected anything.
He also added that the hospital was also trying to protect its doctors despite some facilities still remaining inadequate.
The same picture was seen in Mugda, Barishal, Rangpur, Mymensingh and some other district level hospitals.
Frontline doctors in fear
A recent survey by researchers from the James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH) at Brac University and Bangladesh Health Watch (BHW) found that most frontline health workers in Bangladesh were in fear of getting infected with coronavirus as they have doubts over the quality and effectiveness of the PPEs supplied to them.
About 75% of doctors and nurses and 40% of other health workers have questioned the quality after receiving at least one item of protective gear, the survey found after questioning 60 respondents from 14 districts and 43 health facilities.
According to the survey, frontline health workers are reusing the PPEs, which are more like raincoats, whereas the World Health Organization has suggested disposing of the PPE after a single use.
At least 422 doctors tested positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday, according to the Bangladesh Doctors’ Foundation (BDF), a platform of physicians.
National Technical Advisory Committee recommendations
The National Technical Advisory Committee led by Prof Dr Mohammad Shahidullah has highly recommended four guidelines to the government to prevent the spread of coronavirus and also ensure the protection of doctors.
The committee was formed on April 19 to tackle the coronavirus situation in the country.
Dr Shahidullah said several sub-committees had been formed and would submit some proposals within three days.
He said at first the government needed to project how many patients would be infected and prepare to provide all the facilities they need.
He advised that the government should separate Covid-19 dedicated hospitals from other hospitals to continue providing standard health services.
He said the government had to ensure social distancing among people to reduce the infection rate.
The last recommendation is to increase more and more testing facilities at the district level so that suspected coronavirus patients could be detected early.