Covid warriors left in the lurch

Dr Sirajuddin was the poster boy in the family and the clan. With his sheer grit and determination, he had secured himself a coveted post-graduate seat in a govt medical college. It was to be the turning point the entire family had been waiting for.

Enthusiasm of his youth knew no bounds. He served day and night in the Covid ward like a man possessed, as he saw other doctors doing. Inevitably perhaps, he contracted the contagion. But the hospital where he spent sleepless nights caring for the sick had no bed for its own fallen hero. Dr Sirajuddin was shuttled from one hospital to another till he breathed his last. Unpaid hospital bills were cleared though the benevolence of the medical fraternity.

A soldier agrees to be cannon fodder with the reassurance that he has the backing of a grateful nation. In case of medical personnel, the corona warriors, platitudes have ranged from homilies, eulogies to showering of petals from the sky. Nobody is asking why the heroes do not get a hospital bed and a decent treatment. Even the salary that is taken for granted last year needed intervention of the court in the national capital before it was credited.

Data compiled by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) show that more than one thousand doctors have succumbed to COVID in the line of duty. But only a handful of these cases have apparently received the Rs 50 lacs as compensation for Covid deaths of frontline health workers.

A bitter Dr Ajay Kumar, President of IMA, Bihar points out that in Bihar alone 111 doctors (as on 11 April, 2021) had succumbed to the contagion, less than half of whom were in govt service. The govt promised the compensation of fifty lacs (through a tie up with an insurer) to private doctors only ‘if drafted for Covid service’.

But when the government orders all private hospitals to keep aside Covid beds and keep all private clinics open with the threat of FIR for non-compliance, it amounts to de facto drafting, he points out.

Even doctors in government service who died have received a raw deal. Insurers want to know if the deceased health workers had co-morbities, pre-existing conditions, if they were on Covid duty, if they had got themselves tested and taken precautions. In short, the insurer does everything to find a ground to deny the amount to the insured. DP Vats, a Rajya Sabha MP of the BJP raised the issue in the House but nothing has come out of it.

Even at the best of times, mortality and morbidity are the two constant companions of medical professionals. Neil Greenberg from Kings College, London in a scholarly analysis published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) flagged another serious concern.

“…the moral injury resulting into psychological distress resulting from actions (or lack of them) that is in violation of the moral or ethical code, results in an intense feeling of shame, guilt or disgust. Combined with anxiety and depression it can manifest into post-traumatic stress disorder with at times a suicidal ideation.”

The Reuters report last week on the ‘strange saga of Rohan Agrawal’, a 26-year-old doctor as the sole arbiter of life and death in Holy Family Hospital, Delhi is a telling commentary on the situation. To choose randomly one for the only available bed (read -chance to survive) out of the many in similar and equally dire need is bound to haunt him for the rest of his life. No wonder some of those who can afford to do so have already withdrawn themselves from the profession.

“These are extraordinary times. There is a pressing need to ensure that the task ahead does not cause a long-lasting damage to the healthcare staff. They will be the heroes of the day but we need them for tomorrow,” reminds Dr Greenberg. The biggest asset of a warrior is his morale. Merely platitudes are just not enough.