Three months after Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced one-month’s special pay for healthcare providers/workers on COVID-19 duty, none of them have received the amount. Not only the special pay but also ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh meant for frontline workers who test positive for COVID-19 has not reached any of the infected doctors or staff nurses.
On March 24, the Chief Minister announced the special pay for doctors, staff nurses and sanitary workers engaged in COVID-19 work. However, three months have gone by, and the assurance has not materialised.
“In fact, a list of persons who were on COVID-19 duty was collected twice for the purpose of submitting information to the government for grant of this special pay. We had submitted details such as the number of days we had worked in COVID-19 wards and the last date of duty almost a month-and-a-half ago,” an assistant professor in a government medical college hospital in Chennai said.
It was on May 8 that the Director of Medical Education (DME), in a circular, requested all institutions to furnish details of categories of staff working in COVID-19 wards and control activities with their salary details for payment of one month salary as relief measure. This included outsourced and contract staff. It said that the circular was to be treated as most urgent and the last date of submission was May 14.
“In fact, we heard that in an institution, postgraduates, who had worked in COVID-19 wards, were informed that they were not eligible for the special pay,” a doctor, on condition of anonymity, said.
Doctors in various government institutions pointed out that none of the healthcare providers/workers who tested positive for COVID-19 had received the ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh meant for front line workers.
“In the medical services, none of the doctors of any cadre have received the amount, while we heard that a list of staff of Greater Chennai Corporation who had tested positive were submitted for the fund,” a senior doctor added.
In fact, many staff who had tested positive had submitted forms with the hospital administrations for the ex-gratia. “Along with the discharge summary, a form signed by the treating physician and head of the department or director of the institution should be submitted. Many had submitted the forms,” another doctor added.
The issue of special pay and ex-gratia was highlighted by the Federation of Government Doctors Association during their meeting with the Health Secretary. The association insisted that all healthcare providers should receive the special one month pay.
An official said they had submitted the details of beneficiaries for the special pay, and it was awaited.
