A cross-sectional survey on availability of facilities to healthcare workers in Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 pandemic has caused a healthcare crisis across the world. Low-economic countries like Pakistan lag behind in an adequate response including supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), leading to panic among healthcare workers. We aim to evaluate hospital settings and state in Pakistan regarding availability of resources and views of healthcare workers on COVID-19. METHOD: A questionnaire survey was carried out among healthcare workers in public and private sector hospitals across Pakistan for a period of one month. The primary measured outcomes were presence of local Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), availability and training of PPE, specific isolation wards and staff wellbeing support by the hospital management. RESULTS: There were 337 participants, 307 (91.1%) doctors and 11 nurses (3.3%). About two-third of the participants (n = 199, 59%) reported non-availability of PPE and 40% (n = 136) denied availability of local Standard Operating Procedures. About a quarter of the participants (n = 94, 27.8%) had training in Donning and Doffing. Most of the participants (n = 277, 82.1%) felt that it was necessary to have testing available for frontline workers. CONCLUSION: There is lack of PPE and adequate facilities in hospitals as COVID-19 continue to spread in Pakistan. Local medical governing bodies and societies should come forward with guidelines to ascertain wellbeing of the healthcare workers.