Doctor Ketaki Paranjpe. (News18)
Among the dead, a 33-year-old anesthesiologist, a 25-year-old resident physician and a 35-year-old physician who succumbed to the new coronavirus in just the past three days.
- CNN-News18 New Delhi
- Last update: September 17, 2020 7:39 PM IST
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“Doesn’t the government know? We will tell you. We will give you a list,” said Dr. Amarinder Singh Malhi, a resident physician at AIIMS Delhi, when News18 spoke to him and asked if the government had informed Parliament about the death of a total of 155 healthcare workers and their families seeking compensation under the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan package.
The Indian Medical Association has shared a list of more than 382 doctors that says the government has abandoned national heroes. This comes after Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health, informed Parliament that data on dead health workers are not kept centrally. Health is a matter of state, is what Choubey told the House on Wednesday. The IMA has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging that health workers be declared martyrs and that their families have job security. It is about “abdication of duty and abandonment of the national heroes who have defended our people,” the medical association said in a statement.
The country’s largest medical corps said: “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, it loses the moral authority to administer the Epidemic Act of 1897 and the Disaster Management Act. ”The IMA has also published the list of 382 Indian doctors who died due to Covid-19.
Noting that the data has raised concern across the country, the IMA said that no nation has lost as many doctors and healthcare workers as India. “Doctors suffer 4 times the mortality of ordinary citizens and private doctors suffer 8 times the mortality on the same scale. To pretend that this information does not deserve the attention of the nation is abominable, “the statement read.
The information about the death of 155 healthcare workers comes at a time when the medical fraternity is mourning the loss of the lives of 3 young doctors in just the last three days. Ketaki Paranjpe, 33, an anesthesiologist at GMC Nagpur, passed away due to Covid-19. She was an asthma patient and was serving despite being comorbid.
The late Dr. Ketaki Paranjpe.
Dr. Sachin Kashnia, a PG third-year resident anesthesiologist at Mahatma Gandhi University, Jaipur, passed away due to heart failure. He has been treating patients with new coronavirus for the last 6 months and was on duty in the Covid ward the night before his death. Dr. Ravi Gabhane, 35, another RPAMS University physician, passed away on Wednesday.
The late Dr. Sachin Kashnia.
The late Dr. Ravi Gabhane.
AIIMS, Delhi, on Monday lost a 25-year-old doctor, Dr. Vikas Solanki, to Covid-19. He’s been on ventilation for the past month and a half. His colleagues who share fond memories of Dr. Solanki say he was a donor, even when he was cremated in his hometown of Bhiwani. At a government school in Leh, Ladakh, he sponsored the children’s education for two years. He also organized his uniform and office supplies. “I used to say that investing in education can change the face of the country,” said Dr. Malhi, recalling his contribution in a life cut short by Covid-19.
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