Shooting the messenger
It took the Supreme Court of India to issue directions to states for payment of salaries and providing necessary quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers engaged in treating COVID-19 patients.
This issue was raised by almost all medico bodies claiming that the doctors and other paramedical staff are acting as front line warriors during the fight against Covid-19, they should be provided with separate quarantine facilities in-case anyone among them contracts the deadly virus.
A bench of the SC said that doctors and healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients should not be denied quarantine facilities. It also asked the Centre to file a compliance report within four weeks on payment of salaries and quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers and warned that non-compliance would be viewed seriously.
Doctors and para medics have been facing several issues since the outbreak of pandemic in March this year. Not only in the capital city of Delhi but elsewhere also the doctors have been witnessing official apathy at several levels.
In Jammu and Kashmir the administration too has been acting tough against the doctors on several counts. Just yesterday a doctor in south Kashmir was suspended for not attending on a patient who was not wearing a face mask. The suspension generated fierce response from the medico bodies here who confronted the administration by saying that it is the failure of the administration if patients are not wearing masks and the medicos should not be held responsible for it.
Though this is a minor issues doctors here are facing other concerns as well. The prime one being non availability of safety equipments needed to fight the deadly covid-19 pandemic. The second one being the lack of other facilities (infrastructure and others), that are otherwise required to fight the virus wholeheartedly.
Doctors cannot be put to blame for every failure. The government needs to understand the fragility of the healthcare setup in a place like Kashmir. The healthcare infrastructure is so week here that it may take a mere jolt to let it crumble at this juncture when covid-19 is showing no signs of relenting.
At this stage the doctors should not only be encouraged by providing them timely incentives besides their regular salaries, but should be encouraged to bring up the lacunas that the entire healthcare system is confronted with.
Shooting the messenger for highlighting the weaknesses in the system needs to be discouraged at least during this hour of crisis. Presently, we heavily depend on the medicos to get us out of the crisis like situation that has come up as a challenge for us in the form of Covid-19.
Covid-19 is a serious challenge and it can be overcome only when we show up a united face and tackle it scientifically with whatever little facilities we have available with us. Time to join hands together to fight the common enemy has come so let us not waste precious hours and days to condemn and criticize each other.
