Quarantined in Haryana dharamshala, doctors told to arrange own food

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, July 22

Disregarding government instructions to respect corona warriors, the district administration has asked healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and paramedical staff, quarantined at a university guest house and a ‘dharamshala’ here to make own food arrangements.

Administration stops facility

The food expenses can’t be met out of the disaster management fund. Till we work out an arrangement, the staff will have to bear the cost of meals. — Dr Ratna Bharti, Civil Surgeon

While discontinuing the facility, the administration claimed “disaster management funds could not be used to arrange meals for quarantined staff,” said sources.

Civil Surgeon Dr Ratna Bharti, in a letter to the Principal Medical Officer today, stated that the Civil Hospital staff quarantined at Namdev Dharamshala and Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University guest house would now have to bear food expenses.

When contacted, Dr Bharti said they had received related directions from the district administration. “The food expenses can’t be met out of the disaster management fund. Till we work out an arrangement, the staff will have to bear the cost of meals,” she said. A worker lodged at the ‘dharamshala’ for the last over month and a half said he would prefer returning home if the food facility was withdrawn. “We are already exposed to Covid risk. Arranging food is the minimum the administration could have done,” he said.

Another worker maintained that while the health employees in Delhi and UP were being housed in five-star hotels, they were made to put up in guest houses without food, TV, newspapers, magazines or laundry services.

Haryana Civil Medical Services Association president Dr Jasbir Singh Panwar said the staff on Covid duty was being taken care of by the district authorities in Rohtak and other places. “If the Hisar administration has passed such order for the quarantined staff, we will take up the matter with the higher authorities,” he said.

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