5-star hotels for docs only: Govt revises rules for Covid warriors

In Tuesday’s order, the government said that doctors will be put up in premium hotels, nurses and paramedics in other hotels, and support staff in dharamshalas.

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Tuesday issued an order saying accommodation will be provided for all doctors, nurses and paramedics treating Covid-19 patients in the national capital, but in what appeared to be a clarification of a similar order last month, gave a classification of what facilities would be provided to whom.

A public notice stating a lockdown hangs outside Jahangirpuri’s C Block, one of Delhi’s 87 containment zones, on Tuesday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

In Tuesday’s order, the government said that doctors will be put up in premium hotels, nurses and paramedics in other hotels, and support staff in dharamshalas.

“Doctors will be provided four and five-star accommodations, nurses and paramedics are entitled to hotel accommodations, while supporting staff will be put up in dharamshalas,” read the order, signed by Delhi’s health secretary Padmini Singla. They are meant to be put up during a 14-day duty period, followed by a 14-day quarantine period so that they don’t pose a risk to their family members and other they might interact with.

The entitlement classification comes days after at least 15 nurses and lab technicians who were in quarantine after treating Covid-19 patients for two weeks, were asked by the staff of a five-star hotel at 11.30pm to vacate their rooms on the grounds that the facility was “only for doctors”.

The original government order, dated March 29, said that accommodation will be provided to all doctors, nurses and paramedics treating Covid-19 patients. For this purpose, two five star hotels in Delhi were roped in. The initial order did not make any distinction on who would qualify for five-star facilities.

“The hotel has formed a team of essential staff members who will follow strict protocol and take all safety precautions while fulfilling guest services. The hotel will continue to work in close coordination with the ministry of health and local government authorities, to support the extraordinary humanitarian effort of India’s health care professionals in these challenging times,” Leela Ambience Convention Hotel said in a statement on Tuesday, when asked about the incident.

Friday’s incident led to at least two health care unions — representing the nurses of Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital and the Indian Medical Laboratory Technologist Federation (IMLTF) — writing to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain to complain about how front-line health care workers were treated at a time when they were meant to be in isolation.

This was followed by a second order, on Saturday, that said accommodation would be given only to those people who were treating “severely infected” patients.

The order was criticised by health care teams working in coronavirus hospitals, who said that close proximity with patients puts them at higher risk and alternative lodging facility was necessary so that they do not carry the infection back to their families. It was withdrawn, and replaced with Tuesday’s order.

“It is a relief that the hospitals will provide accommodation. Since we are exposed to patients who have the disease, there is a risk of carrying the virus home to families. My batch will start our 14-day duty from Wednesday,” said a nursing officer at a Delhi government hospital who did not wish to be identified.

But some health care workers’ unions objected to new lodging facilities as “discriminatory”.

“It is the nurses and supporting staff who are with the patient for 14-17 hours every day. But when it comes to providing decent accommodation to them, you will discriminate and provide five-star rooms only to doctors. We are not undermining anyone’s contribution in a patient’s treatment, but this bias is unacceptable,” said Jai Veer Singh, president of the Joint Federation of Nurses, a nursing staff union in Delhi-NCR.

He also said the government has been issuing a different order every day, the brunt of which has to borne by health care workers.

“When it started, the government announced that all doctors, nurses and paramedics will be given five-star accommodation. But when we need alternative accommodation more than anything, the government has been releasing caveats,” Singh said.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain did not respond to several calls and text messages requesting comment.

Dr Chhavi Gupta, who is in charge of accommodation of medical teams at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital for Covid-19 treatment, said they have roped in guest houses and a dharamshala in the area, where middle- and lower-level medical staff will now be housed.

“Doctors, nurses and paramedical staff will get accommodation facilities according to their entitlement. Initially, when the order was announced to provide alternative lodging for hospital staff, we had checked them into five-star hotels, but that was a stopgap arrangement. Now we have managed to get guest houses to come on board,” she said.