Concerns are rising amid the COVID-19 PCR testing crisis with children’s access to healthcare being affected by a lack of resources in some medical centers.
A video has gone viral on the internet of Mohammed Al-Dosari, known as Dr. Hmood, a prominent Snapchat blogger calling on authorities and the minister of health to review the current care standards and expand children’s emergency services. The video shows Al-Dosari in distress calling for action after he faced problems admitting his child to the hospital.
Al-Dosari’s main complaint is that children are crammed up in tight spaces in Hamad’s Hospital’s pediatric emergency unit. “There’s like 60 thousand children there” Al-Dosari says, exaggerating the number to impress just how crowded it was. “If someone wasn’t infected with COVID before, they’d certainly get infected after going there,” added the social media influencer in his video.
Similar complaints have been circulating across the country due to the delay in PCR tests, results, and dangerously long lines in front of PHCC centers.
Nurses and healthcare workers are under extreme pressure after all of them were forced to cancel their holidays and work long hours in light of the spike in numbers. Some healthcare workers and security at hospitals and clinics are losing their temper on visitors due to the huge amounts of people gathering in front of the doors to get tested with no prior organization or order.
The distressed father mentions the chaotic situation in the old pediatric emergency centre in Al-Sadd which was unable to see his daughter or treat her. Al-Dosari called on Dr. Hanan Al-Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, to step out of her house and personally witness the situation at the health center.
Read also: Medical error at Hamad Hospital places newborn between life and death
Another incident took place at Al Sadd’s emergency unit on December 27 when a one-week-old baby’s heart stopped due to a medical error made by one of the nurses, leading to brain damage. The baby was injected with an IV drip to reduce her fever, but the syringe had air in it, which caused her heart to stop for 22 minutes while the doctors try to resuscitate her.
The parents are calling on Dr. Al-Kuwari to investigate the matter and to compensate them if the report proves the error was made by Al Sadd.
Videos of parents calling out on the Ministry of Public Health to reinvestigate and improve children’s emergency units have been emerging online raising public concern of the current situation.
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