The doctor is out

Overworked and fearing infection, a growing number of doctors are not reporting for duty

- MINI P. THOMAS

DR YOGESH JAIN does not mince words as he analyses the impact of Covid-19 on health services in the country. “I fear there may be large-scale desertion by doctors and nurses from most public hospitals if the surge continues. We are going to have a tough time from August to October,” said Jain, cofounder of the Jan Swasthya Sahyog.

The situation at Thane, India’s worst Covid-19 hotspot with over 80,000 positive cases, seems to confirm Jain’s worst fears. “Fifty per cent of general practitioners in Thane have shut their clinics since the pandemic began,” says Sandip Malvi, deputy commissioner, Thane Municipal Corporation. The Maharashtra government recently issued an order making it mandatory for doctors to treat Covid-19 patients for at least 15 days in a month. Of the 25,000 private practitioners in Mumbai and Thane, only 2,000 have signed up for Covid-19 duty. Several civic and health bodies in the country have warned of action against doctors refusing duty, under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. Eight doctors of the Patna Medical College Hospital were suspended in May for refusing Covid-19 duty.

“Some doctors are paranoid and are genuinely scared,” said Dr V. Mohan of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Chennai. When the lockdown restrictions were eased and the clinics opened, a few of his doctors refused to resume duty. “They said: ‘The risk is too much. Even if you pay us full, we will not come. We are not going to come anywhere near the hospital,’” he said. “They simply refused. We have doctors who have elderly parents, grandparents or toddlers at home. If they get infected, the outcome can be grim.”