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The Maharashtra government has finally provided health insurance of ₹50 lakh to doctors and paramedical staff from all streams of medicine including Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Dentistry, who have continued to serve the patients in the time of pandemic.
The Maharashtra President of Indian Medical Association ( IMA), Avinash Bhondwe told BusinessLine that after continuous follow up, the State Health Department has agreed to provide the insurance cover.
Last week the Health Services Directorate (HSD) gave clearance. The HSD has also agreed to provide insurance payments to the family members of the deceased doctors who were not covered under State government insurance schemes. The only condition being that the respective medical council governing Allopathy, Dentistry, Ayurveda and Homeopathy will have to certify that the doctors were treating patients during Covid crisis, he said.
An August 20 notification issued by the HSD, said that the Insurance Scheme for Health Workers fighting Covid-19, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package will be applicable to all the private hospital staff including doctors, nurses, retired or volunteer staff, outsourced, contracted and daily wage workers.
The insurance covers loss of life due to Covid and accidental death of health workers while on Covid related duty.
Bhondwe said, when the pandemic broke out, the Maharashtra government announced insurance of ₹50 lakh for government employees, health workers and police personnel. The scheme was also applied to the private doctors serving at Covid Hospitals as per the State government notifications.
Today, 45 private doctors, mostly General Practitioners, in Maharashtra succumbed while providing medical services to Covid patients in their private clinics or hospitals, whose family members will get the compensation. There are around 70,000 private doctors in Maharashtra will be covered under this scheme. For such doctors, IMA (Maharashtra) from March 2020 has been insisting on an insurance cover of ₹50 lakh, Bhondwe said.
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