Refuting the allegations made by an anaesthetist of Narsipatnam Area Hospital over the shortage of masks and personal protective equipment (PPEs) for doctors, Andhra Medical College principal P.V. Sudhakar and District Coordinator of Health Services B.K. Naik have said that of the 12,624 PPE kits available in the district, only 86 have been used in the last 24 hours.
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Anaesthetist Sudhakar Rao recently alleged on a social media platform that lack of masks and PPEs was “proving costly for doctors”. He also claimed that signatures of doctors were being taken when they was given a mask, saying that “it was ridiculous”.
‘No dearth of PPEs’
“More than 12,000 PPEs are available in the district. These are being supplied to doctors as per the protocol issued by the Government of India. Apart from these, around 12,000 N95 masks, over 4 lakh gloves and more than 2 lakh surgical masks are also available,” said Dr. Naik.
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He also termed the claims made by the anaesthetist as “baseless wild allegations”.
Signing register
“Any government employee has to sign in the register while receiving the stock. Despite working in the government hospital for so long, the anaesthetist seems to be oblivious to this fact. Maintenance of stock position is essential not only to ensure accountability, but also to use the available stock where it is actually needed,” said Dr. Naik.
He explained that N95 masks were meant for only those doctors who treated COVID-19 patients. These masks were reusable and could be used any number of times after washing.
“I appeal to all doctors not to baseless allegations in such testing times. We must check the facts instead of circulating such videos that do the rounds on various social media platforms,” said Dr. P.V. Sudhakar.
District Medical and Health Officer S. Tirupathi Rao and ENT Hospital Superintendent Raghunadha Babu were present.