New Delhi: Highlighting the fact that the country has lost 756 doctors in the first wave and over 146 in the second wave, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has questioned the lack of transparency in reporting Covid-19 deaths, as well as the manpower shortage, drug shortage and the ‘oxygen crisis’ in the country in a scathing press release issued Saturday.
Titled ‘IMA demands health ministry to wake up from slumber and responds to mitigate the growing challenges in Covid Pandemic’, the release said: “Hundreds of deaths happening in big hospitals are shown as non-COVID deaths and crematoriums are showing houseful boards. RTPCR negative, but CT positive cases are not counted. Why are we trying to hide actual deaths?”
“If the public comes to know about the actual deaths, their seriousness to adopt COVID-appropriate behaviors will rise,” it added.
The release also talked about the increasing violence against doctors and healthcare professionals, and asked: “When a death occurs not due to disease but lack of infrastructure, the affected people are expressing their anger by vandalizing hospitals and health care professionals. Who is going to control this?”
It further said that the IMA’s demand to bring a central law against hospital violence didn’t evoke any “palpable response from the government”.
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‘Increase healthcare budget’
The statement began by saying the IMA is “astonished to see the extreme lethargy and inappropriate actions” of the health ministry in combating the second wave of the pandemic. The requests made by the body and other professionals were “put to dustbin” and decisions are being taken “without realising the ground realities”, it alleged. It then went on to highlight several issues in the Covid management across the country, ranging from failure to impose a national lockdown to shortage of drugs, vaccinations and manpower.
Thus, the IMA has demanded a revamp of the entire healthcare administration in the country “with Indian Medical Service cadets who are well versed with the technical and administrative skill for effective execution of health care”.
It has also sought establishment of a new integrated ministry “to serve in this pandemic with a dedicated, proactive, vibrant, innovative, and altruistic Minister and alleviate the fear of people by leading from the front”.
It also demanded an increase of the healthcare budget from 1 per cent of the GDP to 8-10 per cent of the GDP.
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‘The crisis of oxygen’
The release went on to say that the IMA has been insisting on a “complete, well-planned preannounced national lockdown”, but the Centre has refused to heed to it. “Life is precious than the economy”, it asserted.
Highlighting the shortage of essential drugs for treatment of Covid-19, IMA said that since production has not been enhanced to the desired levels, black marketing and hoarding has become rampant. While it suggested price capping and systematic tracking with surveillance for such drugs, it claimed the government “is not interested” in such measures and has not removed the GST on masks, PPE kits and lifesaving drugs.
On manpower shortage, it said the issue was being dealt with by “knee jerk reactions, (rather) than with progressive inclusive planning and consultation with suffering junior doctors”.
It also highlighted the “crisis of oxygen”, saying that “though there is enough production, it is often the distribution is not proper”.
“Health care professional organizations are neither consulted nor the honorable Health minister in this whole pandemic had time to interact with modern medicine professional organizations to solve this issue,” the IMA stated.
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‘Who is to be blamed?’
Noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the country that the vaccination drive for those above 18 years of age would begin from 1 May, the IMA said was “unfortunate” the health ministry had “failed to make the necessarily required road map and ensure vaccine stock”, resulting in the third phase of the vaccine drive being stalled in many places.
“When the Prime minister notification is not implemented scrupulously, who is to be blamed?” it said.
The statement also called the differential pricing system for vaccination “unhumanistic”, asking, “In 1997 and 2014, India could declare eradication of smallpox and polio only by adopting the universal free vaccination and not by a differential pricing system. When 35,000 crore rupees were allotted in the budget, with which the maximum required 200 crore vaccine doses are purchasable, why the central government is shedding its responsibility?”
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‘If someone is unable to see foresee chaos, not fit to be in govt’
Speaking to ThePrint, IMA national president, Dr J.A. Jayalal said that though the body has been working very actively and interacting with the government for a while now, “all sorts of suggestions from us are getting a very cold response”.
“There is no appropriate checking of the issue. At the ground level, we feel very uncomfortable to face the panic that the people are facing,” he said.
He said that while the government knows that vaccination and a lockdown is the need of the hour, they are coming up with “some or the other reason for not implementing it in the proper way”.
Talking about the vaccination drive in the country, he asked, “Why this chaos? If someone in the government is not being able to foresee all these things and plan accordingly, he is not fit to be in the government.”
Dr Jayalal, however, asserted that politicians are’t to be blamed for the current situation. “It is the fault of bureaucrats and the technocrats in the administration … It is an absolute failure on the part of the bureaucrats not anticipating the needs of the people,” he added.
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