Hundreds of docs +ve, RDAs seek isolation facilities to curb spread within family, hosps

New Delhi: With several hundred doctors having tested positive for Covid-19 in the last week and the infection now spreading through ICU wards and dialysis wards, resident doctors here have sought quarantine period for those working in high-risk wards along with accommodation for them to curb the spread of the virus in hospitals and among immediate family members of the doctors.

The Resident Doctors' Association of both the Safdarjung Hospital and the RML Hospital have now written to their respective Medical Superintendents to ensure that such facilities are provided to resident doctors — who are at the frontlines of the pandemic.

In its letter, the Safdarjung RDA asked the hospital management to address the issue of the quarantine period, accommodation and a separate testing facility so that unnecessary exposure to other staffers and patients can be curtailed.

"Resident doctors have been at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus in the previous two waves and will continue to do so in the present scenario also. We therefore request you to take necessary actions at the earliest... so that positivity rate among Resident Doctors can be controlled," the Safdarjung RDA said in its letter.

Significantly, nearly 1,000 doctors across various hospitals in the Capital are now positive for Covid-19 — leading to a growing staff shortage.

Meanwhile, the resident doctors at RML Hospital said that they are not being provided accommodation as they were in the previous two waves. As a result, many of the exposed doctors are living with their families or in their hostels — posing the risk of passing the virus on to loved ones and to

doctors who are working in non-Covid wards, who might further pass it on to their non-Covid patients.