Lok Nayak doctors, medical students want resumption of non-Covid services

With the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) under control in the city, only 166 beds were occupied in the hospital on Monday.

Doctors and medical students from Lok Nayak hospital and associated Maulana Azad Medical College launched a sit-in protest outside the director office demanding that non-Covid services be restarted. The 2,000-bed hospital was converted into a dedicated Covid-19 treatment facility block by block March through April.

Medical professionals in PPE attend to a patient in the Covid-19 ward at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital (LNJP) in New Delhi. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT PHOTO)

With the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) under control in the city, only 166 beds were occupied in the hospital on Monday.

The interns, postgraduate students, and resident doctors who are supposed to be trained in their respective fields have been managing only Covid-19 patients.

“A student has three years for post graduate training, almost one year in gone without us receiving any education in their respective fields. Those from the medicine and anaesthesia sections have been treating the most serious Covid-19 patients in the ICU. The rest – even those studying surgery — have been included in a central pool or Covid duty in other parts of the hospital,” said Dr Keshave Singh, president of the resident doctors association of the hospital.

The hospital has about 2,500 doctors undergoing training – 1,250 studying MBBS, 250 interning after it, 600 post graduate students, 300 senior residents who work with doctors in their field, and 50 super speciality students.

“Even the college is not open for MBBS students, who do not even need practical experience in the hospital. We have demanded that it be opened as MAMC and the University College of Medical Sciences run by the Delhi government are the only institutes to not have started classes so far,” said Dr Singh.

He added that the doctors have been raising this demand since September. “There were some discussions on letting the students work in other Delhi government hospitals, but no one has been assigned so far. Recently AIIMS and PGI Chandigarh held their PG entrance exam, three of the top 10 spots went to interns from MAMC but they haven’t been given an internship completion certificate, as they have been treating just Covid-19 patients and their training is incomplete,” he said.

Dr Rajan Sharma, National President, Indian Medical Association said, “The doctors need to get holistic training, they are not here to become Covid specialists. The doctors are first taught the basics in MBBS, then they go on to do post-graduation, then work with senior doctors in the field to gain experience before working on their own. If they miss any of it, we will have doctors who are not properly trained.”

In addition, the first year post graduate students from the hospital were posted at Covid Care Centres and dispensaries. “They were supposed to treat Covid-19 patients, but what they are really doing is clerical work. They are wasting their precious time needed for training. We want the government to bring them back to the hospital and start the training,” said Singh.

“Other non-teaching hospitals can be converted into Covid-19 hospitals with Lok Nayak managing only the very sick Covid patients. This will ensure that the teaching of one of the most prestigious medical college is not hampered for an entire year,” he said.

The director of the hospital Dr Suresh Kumar refused to comment. However, a senior official said that the decision rested with the government. “The hospital already has submitted a plan on how to partially open the non-Covid services. Now, the decision has to be taken by the government. The fear is if there is a surge in the number of cases, how will it be managed,” the official said.