JOIN USCovid-appropriate administration necessary: IMA-Maharashtra
As the country reels under the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, the apex body of doctors on Monday called for the need of “Covid-appropriate administration” along with “Covid-appropriate behaviour” to tide over the crisis.
"We want to state that this disease is here to stay for quite some time. We have to accept it. So life has to move on, with Covid-appropriate behaviour and Covid-appropriate administration as well. For that the HCWs are ready, but they need some autonomy and least administrative harassment,” the Indian Medical Association-Maharashtra State said.
“We are with the government. Our members are already working in the private sector and we have given services in the public sector as well. We can still offer help in the form of telemedicine, e-ICU and vaccination. And in this struggle 17,975 doctors have contracted the infection and unfortunately, 168 have succumbed to Covid-19 in our state. But the government has not given the insurance cover to all. So the government must come clear on the insurance cover to all those working in Covid hospitals,” the IMA-Maharashtra President Dr Ramkrishna Londe, President-elect Dr Suhas Pingle, Honorary State Secretary Dr Pankaj Bandarkar, Joint Secretary Mangesh Pate and Chairman of Action Committee Dr Rajendra Kulkarni said in a joint statement.
About the pandemic and combat strategies, the statement said, “Testing of many, treatment of all and increasing awareness about the Covid-appropriate behaviour in all, are the pillars for the containment of the pandemic. We agree to that. But vaccination of all is the key to strengthen these pillars. The government must make vaccination against Covid-19 a mission to be run by all the stakeholders. We, the medical fraternity, have eradicated polio from this country. We have been successfully running immunization against many vaccine preventable diseases. So we urge the government to make the vaccination drive to all those who wish to receive it and by all those who wish to give it.”
They said the administration, government and media need to strive hard to maintain the faith of society in the medical fraternity, otherwise, the health care workers will get demoralised and it will be detrimental to the already overburdened health care system.
“The administration officials and leaders in the government should avoid generalized statements in relation to the treatment part of the disease in question. Such sweeping remarks by the government authorities can create distrust in the patient and their relatives' minds and at the same time disturb the already stressed medical fraternity,” it stated.