Resident docs question move to draft students for COVID-19 duty
New Delhi: The recent order by the Delhi government to involve medical students and interns as COVID warriors has been criticised by senior and resident doctors, even as hospitals and teaching institutes under the state government have started working on the same to ensure better management of the Coronavirus situation in the city.
According to officials at the Delhi government, they are waiting for the hospitals to send lists. "Either mails will be sent to us or we will be approached manually for the same," a Delhi government official said.
Speaking on the issue, a senior resident doctor at Lok Nayak Hospital (LNJP), which is covid-dedicated at the moment, said that interns are already posted in the hospital, but are not allowed inside the COVID-19 wards. "At the moment, when cases are increasing and ICU beds are almost full, where will you deploy these doctors? Also, we will be putting unskilled doctors into the Covid areas. Why not put allopathy doctors on duty, instead of medical students?" he said.
The order to engage MBBS students in Delhi government hospitals and Covid ICUs was issued by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday morning to meet the manpower shortage at the hospitals amid a spurt in the Coronavirus cases in the national Capital.
The announcement came after the Delhi state department, last week directed authorities to involve medical students and interns as COVID warriors, hospitals and teaching institutes under the Delhi government have started working on the same to ensure better management of the coronavirus situation in the national Capital.
The Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) raised an objection on the same and in a letter to Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday, highlighted how students and interns are not qualified enough to treat COVID patients.
"Undergraduate students are not skilled enough yet to be posted for Covid duties. They are still under training to acquire necessary clinical skills and are at higher risk of contracting the infection. Unfortunately, neither have there been adequate steps for recruitment of qualified doctors nor have undergraduate medical students undergone any special training to work in such unforeseen circumstances," the letter read.
