The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has asked the Maharashtra government to change the duty pattern of private specialists and other doctors who are serving in Covid-19 hospitals. 

Currently, such doctors work for seven days without a break and are are quarantined for another seven days. In effect, the private doctors are not serving their non-Covid patients for two weeks, who also require urgent care, said Avinash Bhondwe, Maharashtra President of IMA.

Bhondwe told BusinessLine  that such a proposal has been moved by the IMA (Maharashtra) and it has been accepted in principle by the State Administration. It has been suggested that such doctors can work for a two-hour shifts every working day. After that, they will get sanitised in the hospital and go back to private practice. In the event of a Covid-patient developing severe distress symptoms that doctors will remain on call and can come back immediately to the Covid hospital. In some cases telemedicine can also be used effectively by the specialist to guide the treating doctor at the hospital, he said.

Resuming order in shifts

He added that specialists are not required to monitor non-ICU patients 24x7. After their morning rounds, they can go back to their private practice. Change in the duty pattern will bring order and balance between the doctors, Covid and non-Covid patients, and State Administration.

Bhondwe also warned that Covid, which was until recently an urban phenomenon in Maharashtra, was now spreading to the rural areas. Such areas do not have enough health infrastructure facilities to take care of a pandemic. Therefore pre-emptive steps such as stocking up of emergency medicines especially Remdesivir should be taken. At the village level, the local chemist shop may not have the financial strength to stock such medicines. Therefore, the local government hospital must have a stock, he said.

He added that in rural as well as urban hospitals, well trained ICU staff is also urgently required.

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