Tepid response from pvt docs greets dist admin’s Covid plea

Jamshedpur: Even though Covid-19 cases have crossed the 10,000-mark in East Singhbhum, private doctors are unwilling to extend their services despite the administration’s appeal “owing to the state government’s failure to provide them with social security”.
Recently, DC Suraj Kumar held meetings with the representatives of Indian Medical Association (IMA) in order to motivate them to join hands with the administration in the latter’s fight against the deadly virus. Kumar has even requested the doctors and the para medics for their volunteer service but the response has not been good.
“The doctors are not willing to come forward for volunteer service since the Union and the state governments’ attitude towards the families of those, who died while serving Covid-19 patients, has been discouraging,” IMA (Jamshedpur) president Umesh Khan said.
An IMA functionary preferring anonymity said that no doctor will be willing to offer his/her services unless the state government provides social security to the family members of a doctor who dies on duty.
Another IMA functionary cited the example of Dr Virendra Seth, who died on June 1 while serving a Covid patient at a community health centre in Dumaria, for the doctors’ being wary of volunteer service. “Seth’s death case has proved how serious the government is when it comes providing social security to the doctors’ kin.”
Seth’s family allegedly has not received any compensation yet. Although he tested negative for Covid-19 following his death, IMA claims that Dr Seth died after being exposed to the virus while treating the infected patients.
Besides Seth, in the past one month, the district has witnessed the death of a former civil surgeon, M M Agarwal, and a serving doctor, J P Lal, due to Covid-19.
Besides the spike in cases, hospitals like Kantilal Gandhi Memorial Hospital — which was recently taken over by Tata Steel following the exit of Medica and converted into a 120-bed dedicated Covid care centre — for instance, are battling manpower shortage.
Noting that nearly 100 more doctors are required at the moment to serve the Covid-19 patients, Dr Khan said the government should appoint the doctors on an ad hoc basis at least. “In Bihar, the Nitish Kumar-led government has appointed more doctors and nurses to meet the shortage of healthcare professionals. I hope our state government will make a similar move shortly,” Dr Khan added.
According to IMA, there are close to 2,000 practising doctors in the district, of which 1,400 are members of the IMA.
As of Monday morning, the district had recorded 10,660 cases, of which 3,065 were active.