Medical postgraduate students at Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Kozhikode, are planning to join hands with medical teachers’ organisations to protest against the duty list prepared for e-Sanjeevani, the tele-consultation project launched by the Health Department for people who cannot reach the hospital due to the pandemic.
Out-patient (OP) services at the MCH are normally handled by senior doctors. e-Sanjeevani is to help people access OP services without coming to the institution. The order issued by the Director of Medical Education had reportedly specified that medical college doctors who could not be on COVID-19 duty due to health reasons or others could be assigned the tele-consultation duty.
Functionaries of the Calicut chapter of the Kerala Medical Postgraduates Association (KMPGA), however, said the hospital authorities had deputed postgraduate students for the duty. When the association objected to the move and insisted that senior faculty members be present along with them during the consultation, the duty lists for some departments were changed.
M.V. Amish Rahi, KMPGA functionary, said on Monday that they would not attend duty in departments where senior doctors were not present.
The resident doctors pointed out that it was not clear why medical postgraduate students were put on duty when the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) had many specialist doctors under it. The latest health strategy seems to be choosing medical postgraduate students wherever there is a gap in services. The move to assign medical postgraduate students for e-Sanjeevani duty would deprive common people a chance to get the services of senior doctors. It was happening at a time when their academic work had been halted with most of the medical teachers being busy, they added. Mr. Rahi said similar protests were also happening in some other medical colleges in the State.
