Bengal Doctors Write To Mamata Pleading For More Safety, Tests And Transparency In Covid-19 Data

Eight bodies of healthcare professionals in Bengal, including the state branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), have written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee pleading for more transparency on detection, treatment and deaths of Covid-19 positive patients.

The eight bodies have written a joint letter to Banerjee urging, among other things, “real time, transparent data of Covid-19” in Bengal and daily medical bulletins of all healthcare workers under treatment”.

The 11-point letter, one of whose signatories in Trinamool MP Santanu Sen (of the IMA), also urged the chief minister to address the issue of adequate protective gear for frontline healthcare workers. It asked for setting up more testing centres and empowering doctors to order tests of suspected patients.

The ICMR’s guidelines regarding issuing death certificates should be “strictly adhered to” and suggested that committees set up by the state government to combat the pandemic ought to include epidemiologists, virologists and public health experts.

The letter by all the eight bodies representing healthcare professionals in Bengal is a veiled criticism of the ad-hoc and opaque manner in which the state government has been functioning with regard to combating the pandemic.