E-Paper
Ensure medical workers travel unhindered: Centre
The complaints by health care professionals of being stopped by the police at border check-posts come even as cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba wrote to states on Monday, directing them to ensure that medical workers can travel for work unhindered.
Health care services across key Delhi hospitals engaged in battling the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) are getting impacted, administrators said on Monday, with staffers complaining of not being allowed cross-border movement from other parts of the National Capital Region amid a national lockdown implemented to contain the outbreak.
The complaints by health care professionals of being stopped by the police at border check-posts come even as cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba wrote to states on Monday, directing them to ensure that medical workers can travel for work unhindered.
Tanvi Grover, a postgraduate anesthesiology student who works at the Safdarjung Hospital’s intensive care unit, said travelling from and to her house in Gurugram has been a nightmare. She said has had to plead with policemen at the Delhi-Gurugram border to let her return home from the hospital.
“The first day that I got stuck, I was at the border for over 1.5 hours, trying to convince the officials that I did not have any accommodation or even clothes to stay back in Delhi. The next time, I asked for a 24-hour shift that ended in the morning so that I could cross the border at about 5am when the checking is not so strict,” she said.
Grover said she exchange shifts with others over the last two weeks in attempts to avoid hassles in travelling. For her next shift on Tuesday, she was not sure whether she would be allowed to cross the border into Delhi. Grover has her hospital ID card, an authorisation letter from the hospital’s medical superintendent, and now an online pass.
About 35% of doctors, nurses and other health care workers at the Safdarjung Hospital live across the border in Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad and this has hampered the hospital’s functioning, said Dr Manish Kumar, president of the Safdarjung Hospital Resident Doctors’ Association. The hospital currently has 130 Covid-19 patients.
“We are falling short of staff as many health care workers are unable to come to Delhi for their duties, which means those living in Delhi are pulling off more shifts and longer hours. This is not a sustainable measure and if some relief is not provided, others will get exhausted,” he said.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) medical superintendent Dr DK Sharma said the services were being hindered at the premier hospital. “A couple of hundred staff members travel from across the borders for their duty... [they] have been unable to report for work. However, we are a big hospital with thousands of doctors, nurses and healthcare staff. So, we are able to manage for the time being.”
A resident doctor who works at AIIMS said that last week, she had to plead with the police to be allowed to cross the border into Gurugram. “The person manning the border told me that the first [Covid-19] positive case reported involved a health care staffer. So till the time he is on duty at this check post, he won’t allow my car to pass,” the doctor, who was travelling to Palam Vihar in Gurugram last week, said on condition of anonymity. She returned to the hospital and was later able to cross over at a later time.
An administrator of a tertiary care hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “Yes, the lockdown of the Haryana and UP borders has impacted the services in the hospital; I can’t say how much, but we are running the services with the help of the staff that we have.”
A senior Delhi government official said officials were trying to resolve the issue. “There have been talks and the government is planning on providing a list of those performing essential services in Delhi to allow them cross the border. The government is also looking at providing temporary accommodation till this lockdown is over.”
Doctors associations have previously said the problems in travelling across state borders have led to undue pressure on those living in Delhi. “Around 15 to 20% of health care staff comes from across the border [particularly of hospitals] near the border areas such as GTB Hospital. With the closure of borders, the doctors living in Delhi have had to work more than their share,” said Dr Parv Mittal, vice president, Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association.
Officials working on Covid-19 contact tracing and surveillance have also been facing problems with several on-ground health care workers being from places outside the Delhi borders. “We have had to ask administrations of the neighbouring states to allow one-time exit for the health care workers and here we are making some arrangements for their stay. However, the problem is that they have to stay away from their families for extended periods,” a Delhi official said on condition of anonymity.
The interstate border closures because of Covid-19 have also hit the testing facilities. “There is a human resource shortage because staff cannot travel as the Gurgaon and other borders are sealed. There are issues with logistics as equipment is taking time to reach us by road. Our staff is getting harassed by neighbours, landlords because they work in the diagnostic sector,” said Dr Navin Dang, founder, Dr Dang’s Labs.
