A total of 32 doctors have died of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu so far and another 15 doctors who died had symptoms of COVID-19 but tested negative for the infection, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Tamil Nadu State branch, has stated.
All 32 doctors tested positive for COVID-19 through RT-PCR testing. Apart from them, a Siddha practitioner died due to COVID-19. In the last three months, 11 more doctors died due to non-COVID-19 causes in the State. The government was apprised of the details periodically, the association said in a statement.
Recently, data on the number of doctors who died of the infection in the State sparked a political controversy after the IMA headquarters said that 43 doctors died in the State. But the figure was refuted by the Health Minister and the State IMA.
In a press release dated August 14, the State IMA noted that its senior State vice-president, G. Kothandaraman, from Rajapalayam, also died after fighting COVID-19 for 35 days.
The association went on to place a number of demands with the State government. It said the government was insisting that all private hospitals treat their patients with universal precautions. Nearly 85% of COVID-19 cases were asymptomatic and most patients visiting non-COVID-19 hospitals could be infected, it added.
As a result, tests should be held for procedures and admissions but there was an acute shortage of private testing centres in semi-urban and rural areas, it said. This had increased the load on government laboratories. The association said that the government could allow setting up of sample collection centres in such areas.
Referring to manpower shortage and costs involved for private hospitals, the association said that the government was capping prices, but there was a wide gap with the actual expenditure for a private establishment. Government hospitals, however, had enough manpower and the expenses were taken care of by the government, it said.
In some districts, they were receiving threats from authorities, by way of memos and closure notices for longer periods than what is prescribed by the guidelines, if hospitals or clinics took in COVID-19 patients, the association said.
State honour
The IMA said that State honour should be given to doctors who succumb to COVID-19.
The government should release a solatium of ₹50 lakh to the families of doctors who lost their lives due to COVID-19, irrespective of whether they worked in the government or the private sector, as announced by the Chief Minister. The government should record all deaths, whether the results of RT-PCR tests return positive or negative, as COVID-19 deaths, if they are clinically positive (that is, if there are CT findings or if they are biochemically or clinically positive).
The government should accept the COVID-19 package rates submitted by the IMA and establish more private testing laboratories/collection centres in rural, semi-urban and urban areas. It also demanded the regularisation of the antiviral drug market and supply to private COVID-19 care hospitals.