Doctors dread next 50 days as govt cancels leave

BENGALURU: Health department staff who are already overworked from handling the first wave of Covid infections followed by the vaccination drive, are shocked and upset over the state government’s diktat on not allowing leave them for the next 50 days.Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar made the announcement last Thursday, against the backdrop of rising infections indicating the start of a second wave. The health department has a strength of around 52,000. 

“Yes. We agree that we have to work in mission mode for the next few months to curb the rise in the number of cases. The minister says he will not take a break for the next 50 days and that we should follow his lead to fight the pandemic. But is his job like ours? Is he in PPE for 6-8 hours at a stretch that he would understand what we are going through?” says a doctor from a government hospital which was one of the first nodal hospitals for Covid care.

With the onset of second wave and the consequent increase in patients in ICUs and Covid wards, there is already an anticipatory dread, intense anxiety, and a constant feeling of unease, as though “something bad is about to happen”, said Dr Nanditha Menon, a doctor at a government hospital in Jayanagar. “They will be asked again to risk their lives, see their colleagues die from Covid-19, make immense sacrifice in their personal lives to serve their patients, and generally be called on to show superhuman abilities,” said Dr Menon.

The Indian Medical Association has criticised the move, saying the state government should not pass such blanket orders and instead, leave it to hospitals to ensure that staff are distributed evenly across shifts to ensure that patients are looked after.

“See, doctors don’t wear magic white coats that protect them from fatigue, grief and fear. Pandemics place health professionals at increased risk of mental illness, uncomfortable emotions and moral injury. They must contend with other additional burdens. We know very well that it is our duty to treat patients with utmost care and we will do it even without such orders,” said Dr Srinivasa S, Chairman of the IMA’s standing committee for child health.

Meanwhile, private hospitals and nursing care centres in the meanwhile, are grappling staff shortage as many people have either not returned from their native places or hospitals themselves have frozen hiring due to a fund crunch. The nurses claim that many of their colleagues are scared of a lockdown and hence have gone to their hometowns already.