UP Doctor tests coronavirus positive, 'frontline warriors' worry

Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, June 3

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Following the revised central guidelines for the so-called “frontline warriors’ a Hapur doctor,  posted at an L1 level COVID-19 facility at a Community Health Centre in the district was forced to go home to his family after a 14-day-long duty.

Even before he could reach home the result of his COVID-19 test mandatory taken on the 12th day of the 14-day-long duty came out to be positive.

He returned to the hospital and was kept in its isolation ward for 14 days until he tested negative on Wednesday.

It was just sheer luck that he had not reached home exposing his entire family including his elderly parents, wife, and children to the deadly disease.

The change in the central guidelines exposing the doctors and other health professionals to COVID-19 is causing simmering unrest among the doctors of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Medical Services (UPPMS) running the state’s  L1, L2 and L3 hospitals attending to the rapidly increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the state.

Under the previous guideline, all doctors, nurses, technicians, and sanitation workers in the Covid-19 wards had to work 14 days in a row and remain in quarantine for the next 14 days to ensure that they did not take the infection back home.

During the passive quarantine period, the off-duty doctors, nurses, technicians, and sanitation workers in the Covid-19 wards were put up in hotels for a 14 days before they returned to duty to ensure that they did not take the infection back home.

During this ‘passive quarantine period’ depending on if they were serving in class A, B or C class city, the doctors were entitled to an allocation of Rs 1500, Rs 1200 and Rs 1000 per day for their stay and a uniform amount of Rs 500 for their food.

They were not paid in cash instead; the district administration was in charge of making arrangements.

However, the May 15 revised guideline of the union health ministry on the management of manpower in hospitals laid down that there was no need for quarantine of healthcare workers after COVID-19 duty unless there had been a breach in the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) or any other form of high-risk exposure.

Doing away with the passive quarantine period is putting the doctors, other healthcare professionals, and their families at huge risk.

According to reliable sources, the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Medical Services Association is sending a memorandum to the Principal Secretary Health demanding that the doctors who go off duty should be allowed to stay in the hospital until the result of their mandatory COVID-19 test comes negative.

According to a UPPMS office bearer, the central guidelines have suggested that the states may modify the guidelines according to the ground reality.

“The situation in Uttar Pradesh cannot be compared to other states. We are the most populous state in the country. The UPPMS has barely eleven thousand doctors serving a population of approximately 23 crores. In times of a pandemic, the doctors are working in a high-risk situation round the clock. A number of beds can be increased rapidly but not the number of doctors. Exposing the already skeleton staff to the infection will further derail the already skewed patient-doctor ratio”, said a doctor demanding the immediate restoration of the passive quarantine system.