CASE STUDY : A scarcity of life-saving resources during the COVID-19 pandemic

Read the case thoroughly and answer the following questions:

The anticipated shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds and mechanical ventilators in the
United States is urgent. Pandemic experts warn that healthcare providers and consumers aren’t
ready practically or emotionally for the rationing of care in a worse-case COVID-19 scenario.
Broaching the topic of who will receive lifesaving care and who won’t in a pandemic is an
understandable struggle. There is no good time for this conversation. To ease the dialogue, I
offer personal and professional advice. If infected with SARS-CoV2, my immune-compromised
teenager and my elderly mother with lung cancer might each need a ventilator to survive. For
20 years, I have studied how crisis leadership, risk communication, and public engagement
strengthen community resilience to disasters. Clarify that all patients will receive care,
ventilator or not: Scarcity of lifesaving resources in the COVID-19 pandemic is a stark
proposition. Shifting the discussion from scarcity to generosity. Leaders should set expectations
now before patients and families walk into a health facility where triage is already the reality.
Consistent and repetitive messages in press conferences, in media reports, during patient
admission, and at the bedside are critical. Otherwise, decisions that have tragic consequences
can appear arbitrary, hasty, and unevenly applied. Top decision-makers and frontline health
workers should become equally conversant in the allocation framework now, using a common
language to relay it to the public.

a) Write your opinion about fairness concerns of people in providing health facilities to
the citizens.
A) Health facilities should be divided equally to all the citizens according to their needs
without keeping any sort of differences or discrimination as this is their basic right.

b) Compare the scarcity conditions of life-saving resources of Pakistan and the entire
world.
A) As a developing country Pakistan is facing issues in several sectors and health care is
one of them. Due to less vaccinations and less health care facilities a lot of diseases are
still causing deaths in Pakistan however they are easily curable in other countries for
example: Viral hepatitis, dengue, tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid, HIV and cholera. As a
developing country with no proper employment, people have to pay large amount of
money in hospitals for their health care however in most of the world it is free of cost.
Despite of all these problems Pakistani health care system is in progress and since last
year, Pakistan has tried to make much improvement in its health care delivery system
and has brought out many reforms.

c) Highlight the role of Leadership in tackling the pandemic.

A) Political leaders, health care agents, NGO’s and private agencies have played a great part
during the pandemic. Functional emergency operations centers were developed by the
government, health care professionals and medical equipment’s were also imported to
treat the local population. The government took the initiative of designating quarantine
houses near borders and airports to isolate people entering Pakistan for a short period to
make sure they were not infected before they moved out in the community. Lockdowns
were imposed during different hours in different regions, and most of the public spaces
were closed off except for grocery stores, pharmacies, and vegetable and fruit shops in
this way economic activity was less disturbed. SOPs were devised for the public and
were meant to be strictly followed in public areas. These included guidelines on social
distancing; that is, avoiding crowded areas, maintaining a physical distance of 3 feet,
wearing masks, maintaining hand hygiene, sanitizing frequently touched surfaces and
areas, and following general hygiene rules such as avoiding touching the face, nose, or
eyes, and coughing, or sneezing in the elbow or a paper napkin instead of the hands. The
authorities started taking disciplinary action against those who violated the SOPs at
public places in various parts of the country. Many campaigns were initiated by the
government in the interest of the general population to spread awareness about the risks,
signs, and symptoms of COVID-19.  NGO’S played a vital role in charity work including
awareness campaigns, providing preventive equipment such as soap, sanitizers, masks,
and relevant reading material to the general public, providing its services to government
institutions including hospitals, ambulances, and trained volunteers. Moreover, they
carried out food drives, provided COVID-19 test facilities and antibody tests, and
arranged for protective equipment to distribute among physicians and medical staff on the
frontline. Many medical students came together and were aiming to provide assistance to
health care workers. They collected hundreds of equipment for distribution through
donations in all major hospitals of the country.