RWAs struggle to run community centres due to shortage of staff

Some groups who have managed to arrange for doctors said it wasn’t easy to find them.

Two days after district administrations identified at least 31 locations to set up community Covid-19 care centres with an aim to add 541 beds with oxygen supply to the city’s health infrastructure, several residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) on Wednesday said they were not being able to start the facilities despite all arrangements being in place due to unavailability of doctors, nurses, and other medical staff.

Several RWAs and NGOs on Wednesday said though the district administration was providing them oxygen cylinders or concentrators, they were not able to find staff that could use them. (Parveen Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

Several RWAs and NGOs on Wednesday said though the district administration was providing them oxygen cylinders or concentrators, they were not able to find staff that could use them. They demanded that the government and district administrations help with human resources to run the facilities.

Hardeep Singh Bhalla, president of the Sainik Farms RWA, said a 60-bed Covid isolation centre located in a municipal school in Pushp Vihar, which only caters to asymptomatic patients, has been identified for conversion into a community Covid-19 care centre.

“We have only medical support staff working with us 24x7 since all our patients are asymptomatic, and doctors only visit in case of an emergency. But, if we will have to set up beds with oxygen support and admit patients with mild symptoms, we will need professionals. We need a doctor there at least for two hours every day and some full-time nurses,” he said.

Arun Kumar, a member of Seva Bharti, an NGO that has agreed to start a community Covid care centre in Paharganj with 30 beds, said: “Some doctors living in the locality have agreed to provide part-time services since they already have prior commitments. We need some permanent doctors.”

Some RWAs said that most of the doctors residing in their locality do not have training in handling Covid-19 patients. Dr. Ruby Makhija, secretary of Navjeevan Vihar RWA, said, “I am an ophthalmologist and someone else here is a dermatologist... we cannot look after Covid-19 patients. We are more than willing to help. We can arrange for funds, foods, and other things, but without a medical team we cannot run a facility with Covid patients having mild symptoms.”

Some groups who have managed to arrange for doctors said it wasn’t easy to find them. Arvind Mehta, president of an RWA in New Rajendra Nagar, who has set up a centre in a school in coordination with the team of area MLA Raghav Chadha, said they have managed to get three doctors for now.

Officials in several districts acknowledged that the unavailability of doctors and nursing staff has become a major obstacle in starting community Covid care centers. “Doctors, nurses, and medical staff are already overburdened with work in their hospitals and clinics. We can’t let RWAs or NGOs start facilities without proper doctors,” said an official in the central Delhi district administration.