A video made by a resident doctor inside a covid-19 ward in Mumbai went viral recently. Nurses were on a protest demanding shorter hours, and the video was proof that doctors can’t care for patients alone. In the last three months, the medical fraternity has been stretched to the limits, caring for an ever-increasing tide of covid-19 cases.
“Doctors working in covid-19 wards are exhausted and burnt out. We must push at least 100,000 young doctors into the system immediately. That is the only way to handle this emergency,” noted cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty said.
Dr Dhruv Chaudhary and his daughter, who is also a doctor, have been working in covid wards in Delhi for the past two months, and recently recovered after testing positive for covid. “For doctors, mental endurance is far more important. Healthcare workers have not seen their families in a long time and feel their work is not appreciated,” said Chaudhary, the covid nodal officer for Haryana and head of pulmonary and critical care medicine at PGIMS Rohtak. “We don’t know how long we can go on like this.”
Far more than the shortage of doctors and nurses is the fact that the guidelines and rules are often contradictory, said Dr Rajan Sharma, president of Indian Medical Association (IMA). “Doctors have not been paid; basic allowances have been cut. We don’t have legal immunity in states. There is no single set of guidelines for healthcare workers. Each state has its own agenda. Doctors are victims of political slugfests and arbitrary orders. All this exhausts and demotivates us,” he said. “And nobody talks about sanitation workers, the most important cog in this wheel,” said Dr. Sharma.
Dr Adarsh Pratap Singh, president, AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association, said, “It is one thing to applaud and shower flower petals on healthcare workers, but more important is to provide them proper facilities and safety.”
India has more than 300,000 coronavirus cases, and the number is rising daily. “Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff are putting in long hours but don’t have proper quarantine facilities near hospitals. Doctors are also facing assaults, like the recent one in Hyderabad. All this puts stress on doctors, leading to exhaustion and demotivation,” he said.
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