Covid19's revealing light

ANOTHER health crisis looms. Unless the warning from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) is heeded, that crisis will most definitely materialise.

Covid19 is one thing, but Tuesday’s warning from PAHO director Dr Carissa Etienne is a different matter. Dr Etienne said there is a need to prepare for an influx of high-risk patients at public facilities when countries begin to lift pandemic restrictions.

“Health services must find a way to expand capacities,” she said, calling for more workers, more drugs, more labs and extended hours. “The arrival of covid19 introduced a grave new threat to the health of our societies. But it has also shone a revealing light on the prevalence of disease.”

Yesterday’s developments in relation to covid19 underlined the tenuous nature of our progress with regard to that virus. Raising the prospect of community spread, it is a reminder of just how quickly the entire system can come under pressure.

We have been very cautious – indeed the litigious believe too cautious – in handling the entry of people from abroad. The prospect of that caution coming undone from within should remind all of the need notto make light of public health regulations. So it is worth repeating: we need to follow the rules.

Yesterday’s scare also proved it remains hard to say with certainty when restrictions should fully lift. Nonetheless, it is clear the planning has to start now. The mountain of cases on the back burner grows.

Dr Etienne noted delays in the treatment of patients with a range of conditions from cancer to kidney failure, as well as crippling shortages of drugs for people with diabetes and HIV.

The same effort made to “flatten the curve,” to prevent an overload of the health system, must now be made to ensure an equally dangerous upsurge does not cripple the system at some point in the future.

The solution is not simply to rest on our laurels in the knowledge that a parallel health system has been set up. As the PAHO director observed, there should be specialised care for high-risk patients, a bolstering of telemedicine capabilities, new points of care, public education and outreach, sufficient spacing for triage, and better co-operation between facilities.

There must be an urgent discussion on how such measures are to be resourced. There is no room in any of this for disruption due to the general election.

In fact, the imperative to act is so strong the competing parties need to come to an understanding that no matter the result, there will be continuity in terms of policy. When you are sick it does not matter if you are red or yellow. Or it should not.