Srinagar: Waking up to the crisis, the government has finally stepped in to provide personal protective equipment and triple-layered masks to the doctors.
On Saturday morning, Principal Government Medical College, Srinagar Dr. Samia Rashid took to Twitter and expressing her gratitude to The Kashmir Monitor for highlighting the risks doctors are facing.
“Thank you for highlighting. As of yesterday, we have more than 13,000 N95 masks, 3300 personal protections kits and 22,000 triple layered masks,” she said
Dr. Samia noted that Medical Superintendent SMHS has procured 10,000 additional triple-layered masks. “Additionally, taking cognizance of the impending scarcity, Medical Superintendent SMHS has procured 10,000 additional triple layered masks last night,” she said
The Kashmir Monitor on Friday had highlighted the lacunae in protection equipment at the tertiary care institute which impacted the functioning of the hospital as the resident doctors went on a two-hour flash strike.
Around 50 junior and senior residents of surgical and medical departments shut down the OPD for two hours to press for their demands.
The doctors threatened to close down Out Patient Department for two hours daily till they are provided with protective gear against COVID-19.
Sensing trouble, the administration went into overdrive to provide protective kits to the doctors.
A senior resident at SMHS Hospital said the step was taken after the administration paid no heed to their multiple requests.
“In the face of an ever-increasing public health emergency, we are made to work without any masks and hand sanitizers,” he said.
The doctor noted that World Health Organization protocols demand that every hospital should follow “Triaging”.
“Triaging is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatment based on the severity of their condition. That means if they have reported severe symptoms, the patients were supposed to go to a separate wing rather than coming directly into the casualty,” he said.
Given the limited resources available at the hospital, the doctors were entertaining every patient into the casualty until the maiden case of COVID-19 was reported in Kashmir. This sent the alarm bells ringing across the communities.
“Now, when the threat of the virus is directly looming over our head, we cannot be expected to work without the protective gear and entertain every patient at the same time,” said another resident doctor.
He stressed that an ill-equipped doctor can become a source of infection for many patients who visit him for treatment.
“The nature of the virus is highly contagious. When you are making a healthcare professional work without any protective gear, he can become a source of infection for scores of people. If the authorities are not bothered about us, they should at least care for the people,” the doctor said.
