Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has urged the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) to devise SOPs for clinics and tell the government how to launch telemedicine clinics so that patients of other diseases could be provided with medical treatment.

This he said on Saturday while talking to a delegation of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) here at the CM House. The delegation members were Doctors Qaisar Sajjad, Qazi Wasiq, Sharif Hashmi and Ghafoor Shoro.

Minister Health Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Health Zahid Abbasi, Focal Person Najam Shah and Adl. Secretary Health Fayaz Abbasi also attended the meeting.

The PMA delegation suggested to the chief minister to totally separate the coronavirus patients from regular hospitals, including tertiary care centers so that regular patients could be attended there.

They also said that GPs should be inducted at the COVID-19 centres after training them on how to manage COVID-19 patients. This would help overcome the shortage of professionals, the PMA delegation said. Minister Health Dr Azra said that there were 45,000 GPs and the health dept wanted to start their training online.

She urged the PMA to help the government overcome the shortage of medical and paramedical staff. The PMA delegation said that the lockdown should have been imposed earlier and it should have been stricter. The chief minister told the delegation that he had been of the view of imposing the lockdown all over Pakistan on March 15, suspending all travel and other activities.

"Since I failed to bring the federal and other provincial governments round to my views and apprehensions, the lockdown was imposed late," he said.

Shah said that he was establishing isolation centers and field hospitals all over Sindh, and these facilities would be almost out of the cities jurisdictions. "We are using our newly-constructed health and education dept buildings and will utilize open grounds by installing marquees there," he said.