LUCKNOW: As the country is proceeding with the 21-day lockdown, the lacunae in the health establishments has come to the surface. Onerous of providing care to people at hospitals and health care units in the present times of pandemic, the health workers treating suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases in UP hospitals are craving for protective kits comprising three-layered masks.
Professors, doctors, resident doctors and non-teaching paramedic staff of the King George's Medical University (KGMU) on Friday decided to donate a day's salary for purchase of three-layered masks to be given to the hospital staff deputed in isolation wards and treating coronavirus positive patients.
The decision was taken at a meeting of representatives of teachers, resident doctors and para-medical associations.
According to KGMU Chief Medical Superintendent, Prof SN Shankhwar, who is also head of the urology department, the amount thus collected would be to the tune of Rs 76 lakh which would be used for buying masks.
Prof Shakhwar then wrote to the university registrar to deduct the amount from salaries and put in hospital revolving fund so that it could be used for purchasing masks.
The CMS said that Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) would also be made available to all those deployed in isolation wards and fever clinic and the expenses of which would be bore by the university. He took the initiative in the wake of resentment among resident doctors over inadequate protective arrangements because of which their life was also at risk while treating suspected and confirmed
cases.
The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) had recently written to KGMU V-C Prof MLB Bhatt, airing their fears of contracting the virus in dearth of Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) while being deployed in various sections of the hospital dealing with COIVID-19 cases. They had also raised the issue of absence of proper masks and sanitizers in some departments. The V-C had assured them of an adequate action.
Similarly, a video of a nurse staff of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Lucknow also emerged on social media showing hospital staff scrambling for masks and even doctors attending to patients suspected to be infected, can be seen without PPE.
Shashi Singh, deputed at Ram Manohar Lohia Institute in Uttar Pradesh’s capital as a nurse, alleged in the video that there were no PPEs for nurses who were directly coming in the contact with suspected patients. A few doctors, pharmacists and lab technicians had proper masks and safety gears, but nurses were given just plain masks. Singh alleged that even sanitizers were not being provided to them.
This problem is not confined to Ram Manohar Lohia Medical Institute but across such facilities in Uttar Pradesh. "We were given clear instructions for dealing with suspected coronavirus and swine flu patients. We are also asked not to share the mask shortage issue with media persons. But, is this country so poor that it cannot even provide PPE to its nurses and doctors?" Singh, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Nurses Association, said.