Letter By Bengal Doctors Exposes State’s Poor Pandemic Preparedness

Two communiques by doctors of West Bengal have thoroughly exposed the rot in state’s healthcare system and given lie to the claims about the state’s preparedness to tackle the pandemic.

A letter to the chief minister by the Association of Health Service Doctors, West Bengal, voiced grave concerns over the pandemic, which the doctors say may get out of control in the state.

The doctors, in their letter, said dedicated hospitals for treating Covid patients in Kolkata and Howrah were overflowing with patients.

They added that even the morgues at these hospitals don’t have any more space to keep corpses of Covid victims! “Lack of infrastructure and human resources in the district level Covid Hospitals is another concern,” the doctors wrote.

They pointed out that save for the two Covid designated hospitals--M.R.Bangur and Infectious Diseases Hospital in Kolkata--critical care units (CCUs) for serious Covid patients have not been developed in other hospitals. Even in those two hospitals, the number of beds in the CCUs is limited.

“Patients are not undergoing CT scan and blood tests at any of these hospitals. X-Rays are being done in only a few places. Most Covid hospitals are run by very few doctors and health workers. Due to lack of infrastructure and services, the thought of getting admitted in Covid hospitals is causing fear among the people,” the doctors wrote to the CM.

The doctors also warned that the number of seriously ill patients will grow rapidly over the next few days and weeks. The number of deaths, they apprehended, will also increase sharply if corrective measures are not taken promptly.

The doctors pointed out that the “lockdown period was supposed to be utilised to prepare Covid hospitals with adequate infrastructure, establish testing centres at each district and medical college and train health workers”. But very little was done. “The situation seems to be spiralling out of control. Now the government wants to avoid liability, which is unacceptable,” they wrote.

They also lamented that normal hospital services for non-Covid patients had “almost collapsed”. Emergency services, OPD services, cancer treatment, dialysis and other treatment has stopped in almost all hospitals and harassment of non-Covid patients is “increasing by the day”.

The doctors submitted a set of 22 demands that include complete transparency in Covid count (number of infected and deaths), dissolution of the ‘death audit committee’, testing as per ICMR guidelines, uninterrupted supply of PPEs and masks for all frontline health workers and immediate improvement of infrastructure at hospitals.

In another development, MBBS graduates serving as interns at the state-run R.G.Kar Medical College Hospital (RGKMCH) in Kolkata decided to stay away from their duties from Monday due to non-redressal of their repeated demands by hospital authorities.

Their demands include PPEs and N-95 masks to frontline health workers at the hospital.

In a communique, the interns exposed the lack of preparedness at the hospital and “gross mismanagement during the Covid-19 pandemic” by hospital authorities. They said that despite repeated pleas, the hospital authorities had refused to provide PPEs and N-95 masks to healthcare professionals at the hospital.

The interns charged the hospital authorities with withholding information on facilities available for quarantine and treatment of frontline health workers infected by the coronavirus at the hospital.

They countered the claim of the state government that all frontline health workers were being regularly tested. The interns said that absence of such testing at regular intervals could put society at risk. “There is absence of transparency and withholding of Covid-19 test reports of healthcare professionals due to administrative and bureaucratic influences. This can cause outbreaks,” the interns warned.

“If doctors and healthcare staff at even a major government hospital like RGKMCH are denied PPEs and N95 masks, one can imagine the state of other hospitals outside Kolkata. The letter by the Association Of Health Services Doctors and the interns of RGKMCH expose the lies that were being propagated by the Bengal government. Even doctors are now talking about the total lack of preparedness, the horrible state of health infrastructure and the shortage of PPEs and masks. We are staring at a disaster,” said BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh.