Doctor shortage will keep repeating unless more are hired, say tired docs

Gurugram: Even as the current Covid-19 wave shows signs of curving down, a significant problem that the "Omicron" wave has brought to the fore is the acute shortage of doctors at government hospitals in the Capital — which has forced endless shifts and sleepless nights upon those attending to patients — and not just the ones on Covid duty.

While the speed of Omicron's spread led to more than a thousand doctors testing positive for the virus in the city and having to be isolated, those still on duty have been working under extreme pressure with many of them saying that unless authorities take hiring doctors more seriously, such a situation would repeat itself wave after wave.

"The doctors started to go off duty after contracting Covid and others had to fill in which eventually led to multiple shifts and negligible days for rest. The main problem is the hiring process. Hospitals are not hiring sufficient doctors that they need," said Dr Aditya Sriram at GTB Hospital's Forensic Department.

Dr Keshav Singh at the Maulana Azad Medical College's Surgery Department echoed that the hiring process needs to be relooked and said, "I myself am suffering from Covid right now and it is very true that there is still a serious staff shortage in government hospitals right now. As the third wave began to show its surge, the hospitals felt the pressure and doctors started falling sick."

While data from as recent as last year showed that Delhi does considerably well when it came to doctor-patient ratio overall (which is more than the international standard), the Delhi government had informed the Assembly that there was a significant shortage of doctors at government hospitals.

This is amplified when it is considered that not as many people visit private hospitals and a large number of people (even from outside the city) go to government hospitals. Put that together with the pace at which doctors are being infected in this wave, the shortages went up in the last few weeks — putting those still working under immense pressure.

Dr Surpreet Kaur at GTB Hospital's Anatomy Department said, "We have been working extremely hard for the last couple of months ever since the Omicron variant led surge… doctors are contracting it very easily even from patients who come in for regular check-ups."

Another doctor at the LNJP's Medicine department admitted to staff shortages because of the virulence of the current variant — which is overwhelming hospitals everywhere.

"The system is already overstressed and now doctors contracting covid and the rest having to work tirelessly is a problem that should be addressed by the government," said Dr Venkatesh at AIIMS' Ophthalmology Department.

But even as the doctors who spoke to Millennium Post maintained that they hoped the worst was now behind them, they were consistent in their opinion that this wave was considerably easier on them than the second wave last year.