Table 7 Areas of need indicated by physicians serving coronavirus patients

Problems with personal protective equipment (PPE)

• Complete kits of sterile gloves, N95 mask, hazmat goggles, full face shields or visors, and long sleeve disposable fluid repellent gowns are needed

• Complete PPE kit is needed in other wards and not just in corona wards and emergency wards

• Monitoring of these kits is needed: Some kits have non-functional items and are not sterilized properly

• Guidance and training on kit management is needed (for donning and doffing of PPE)

Compensation and contracts

• Stop salary cuts of doctors with penalization of private employers for salary cuts and contract violations

• Introduce financial compensation for risky jobs

• Introduce financial security for children and family if we die

• Health insurance for all physicians and other healthcare providers

• Introduce payment for overtime

• Transfer contractual employees serving coronavirus patients to permanent contracts

• Issue a tax relief on salaries for frontline physicians and other healthcare providers

Management at quarantine centers or wards

• Stop outpatients unless emergency cases

• Install vents in hospitals and clinics

• Install sanitizer and disinfectants at short intervals across hospital

• Install shower tunnels at entrance and regularly sterilize hospital corridors, walls, premises

• Increase testing of front-line medical professionals

• Active screening of all people entering hospital

• Introduce system for maintaining physical distancing at hospitals and clinics

• Limit attendants with patients to only one

• Improve shower & sanitization facilities for workers in the hospital for when they leave for home

• Improve sanitary measures in hospitals, some wards have no running water for handwashing

• Walk-through gate for patients

Resource allocation

• More workforce, specifically hospital staff, doctors, nurses, and paramedic staff

• Child support for day care while I am at work

• Have separate hospitals for coronavirus patients

• Government should start paying for inpatients in terms of medications, food and everything

• Proper training for newly engaged house officers before placing them on clinical duty

• Provide sterilized hostel accommodation to all corona duty staff

Security and public support

• Increase security for doctors receiving threats from patients and family attendants

• Increase security at entrance to ensure only screened patients reach us and only one family attendant is with each patient

• Improve public support and awareness that we are humans trying to do the best job we can

• Remove pressure of political maneuvers and demands for VIP servicing

Governance improvement

• More effective plan of action for containment with doctors on planning committee

• Ban religious gatherings and congregations

• Remove beggars from streets and place them in relief homes with corona monitoring

• Strictly maintain lockdown

• Improve the reporting and detection system and introduce a central record

• Introduce strict testing criteria

• Reduce prices of food and basic necessities; solve the food shortage problems by improving ration distribution

• Control and regulate the panic created by social media and television

• Regularly sterilize roads and public places

• Improve public awareness campaigns, especially for poor and illiterate, with clear instructions, regarding coronavirus and infection management

• Increase intake of immunity boosters in the diet

Health sector development

• Awareness sessions are needed for positive thinking and emotional stability

• Reduce stigma and bullying against colleagues trying to maintain physical distance at workplace

• Improve team-building and communication between leadership and junior physicians/ healthcare providers

• Invest and fund research in production of vaccines and medications

• Start digital healthcare services