DYFI urges Puducherry govt to provide remuneration to MBBS final year students for doing Covid duties

PUDUCHERRY: Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), Puducherry has urged the government to consider the final year students of government and private medical college who are working as Covid Triage Team,  as Trainee Medical Officers and provide them with a remuneration of Rs.40,000/- per month like its neighbouring state Tamil Nadu.

In a statement, state President of DYFI, A Anand and Secretary P Saravanan said when Covid-19 numbers rose suddenly, the final year medical college students were also deployed in the fight against the pandemic over the past one month.

The students who are in their final year were engaged in strenuous Covid duties like visiting and monitoring patients who are isolated in homes. Over 100 medical college students are working in triage teams in 33 Primary Health Centres.

For nearly a month the students were assigned to treat around 13,000 patients isolating at home. And 20 per cent of these patients suffer from comorbidity issues and had to be admitted to hospitals or Covid care centres for treatment. 

They alleged that the students have to procure the PPE kits and other protective equipment by themselves and the same was not supplied to them by the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services. 

They were also not given remuneration for their servies. 

In view of this grim reality, the DYFI has urged the government to provide final year MBBS students insurance of Rs 50 lakh, and basic medical equipments like Pulse Oximeter, gloves, N95 maks and PPE kits.