Doctors seek PPE kits for all healthcare workers

So far, 14 doctors have tested positive for COVID-19

April 19, 2020 11:24 pm | Updated April 20, 2020 03:03 am IST - CHENNAI

Many doctors are yet to be tested.

Many doctors are yet to be tested.

Three more doctors tested positive for the COVID-19 on Sunday at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. As of Sunday, 14 doctors have tested positive for the infection.

With the number of affected doctors continuing to rise, the Federation of Government Doctors’ Association has written to Health Secretary Beela Rajesh urging the government to provide proper protection to healthcare providers.

The federation has demanded that standard personal protection equipment (PPE) kit be adequately arranged for doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers handling COVID-19 patients.

It has appealed to the doctors toundergo test for the infection. It demanded that doctors and nurses be put on COVID-19 duty only for six hours and provided 14 days of quarantine on completing week-long duty. They should be given accommodation away from the hospital to avoid spreading the infection to other staff, family and community.

This was not being done currently, a doctor said. “A cardiology PG who tested positive in the RGGGH had contracted the infection after treating a patient in COVID-19 ward. He had fever two days later and by then the infection had spread across the ward,” a doctor said.

At the Government Stanley Hospital, the nurses worked for a week in the ward and were given a week’s quarantine but stayed in the hostel, according to the officials. This was a cause for worry as the nurses who worked in the COVID-19 ward should be isolated.

Prolonged exposure

Doctors said nurses invariably worked longer, sometimes over eight hours and were therefore vulnerable to infection. They had been demanding that they be tested for the infection as they were in the front line. Although doctors and nurses had greater exposure to infection, they had not undergone tests.

The federation wanted the government to keep a third of doctors as resreve. “Don’t bring all of them to hospital. With all elective surgeries put on hold, we can use the resources judiciously,” a doctor pointed out.

The federation wanted the government to announce a compensation of ₹1 crore for the family of Jayamohan, a doctor in the Nilgiris, who died while on duty.

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