E-Paper
Time to consider financial compensation for Covid-19 patients: PGIMER experts
Say a patient, and their family by extension, in isolation is doing a service to society and there needs to be a consideration toward financial compensation for the time spent in isolation.
Experts at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) have opined that people spending time in isolation, especially those from marginalised backgrounds, must be considered for financial compensation.
In an article published in the official journal of the Royal Society for Public Health in May, the experts say what is required is to reframe the narrative that it is enough that a patient with Covid-19 is admitted, is being looked after, and their immediate healthcare needs are being fulfilled as is the case at present.
“It is probably time to recognise that a patient (and their family by extension) in isolation is doing a service to society and there needs to be a consideration toward financial compensation for the time spent in isolation beyond immediate health care and food security (as is the current practice),” said Dr Shub Mohan Singh from PGIMER’s department of psychiatry, one of the authors of the article.
In such a scenario, the article cautions, it is likely that there will be increasing events of non-cooperation with isolation at home or in hospitals by insistence on being discharged, or denial of illness and claims of wrongful test results.
Following which it is probable that people will try to conceal mild symptoms to prevent being isolated and their families quarantined purely to avoid financial loss in addition to the stigma it entails.
“As others rush to take limited employment opportunities, there is indeed truly little incentive for mostly well patients with Covid-19 who find themselves in isolation to cooperate with this process,” the article adds, while citing news articles.
