Making an exception to the fact that Health Minister Harsh Vardhan did not mention the death of health workers due to Covid-19 in his statement in Parliament, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Wednesday published a list of 382 doctors who died from the viral disease and demanded that they be treated as “martyrs”.
On MoS Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey’s statement that public health and hospitals are under the states and therefore insurance compensation data is not available at the Center, the medical corps said it amounts to “the abdication of duty and the abandonment of the national heroes who have defended our people “.
“It is strange to the IMA that after having formulated a hostile partial insurance plan for grieving families to grapple with the disgrace of the government that completely repudiates them, it stares at them,” he said.
According to the IMA, based on Covid-19 data from Sept. 16, up to 2,238 doctors were infected with the disease and 382 of them lost their lives, a senior official with the medical corps said.
Referring to Vardhan’s statement, the IMA said paragraph 19 recognizes the contribution of healthcare workers during this pandemic, but “hides” the morbidity and mortality of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers. Calling it “indifference”, the medical corps said: “No nation has lost as many doctors and health workers as India. Doctors suffer four times the mortality of ordinary citizens and private doctors suffer eight times the mortality in the same scale”.
“To pretend that this information does not deserve the attention of the nation is abominable. If the government does not keep statistics of the total number of doctors and healthcare workers infected by COVID-19 and the statistics of how many of them sacrificed their lives due to the pandemic, loses the moral authority to administer the Epidemic Act of 1897 and the Disaster Management Act. This also exposes the hypocrisy of calling them crown warriors on the one hand and denying them and their families the status and benefits of martyrdom. “, stated the IMA.
Publishing a list of 382 doctors who died in the pandemic, along with their addresses, it said: “We demand that they be recognized and treated as martyrs.”
Their families and children deserve consolation and consolation from the government, emphasized the IMA. “The IMA also recommends that the government seek such data from representatives of nurses and other healthcare workers,” the statement said.
The medical corps said it had shared hundreds of suggestions and comments with the Health Ministry during this national health emergency. “The prime minister considered it appropriate to invite the national president of IMA to a meeting to share concerns and seek suggestions and cooperation. The health minister’s statement suo moto preferred to ignore the national dimension of the war against COVID-19,” he said in the release.
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