Indian Health Infrastructure Ill-Prepared To Combat COVID-19
In the wake of growing cases of the coronavirus, the condition of the Indian health services is leading to heightened worries. Hospitals in several states are dealing with a shortage of health-related equipment.
Releasing a video, Shashikala, a nurse at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, has shown under what circumstances she has to work.
She said that when this is the condition of a hospital in the state’s capital, then it can be guessed what the situation regarding available services will be at health centres functioning in the state’s towns and rural areas. She said that if the government does not provide safety kits to nurses, they will stop working. Not just nurses but doctors too are grappling with a paucity of safety kits for treatment of suspected and infected coronavirus patients. In a letter to AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria on March 16, doctors at Delhi-based AIIMS had said that they face a shortage of personal protection equipment such as eye-glasses, gloves and masks. A report by the Union Health Ministry says that there is an acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staff at hospitals across the country. Due to the scarcity of doctors, people hesitate from admitting patients to primary and community health centres. According to data, in the year 2019, there was a requirement of 21,340 doctors in 5,335 rural community health centres but only 3,881 doctors were posted there. This means that 17,459 posts of doctors are lying vacant. By means of one such community health centre, a population of around 80,000-1 lakh 20 thousand benefits from health services. It is not difficult to deduce how poor the ground reality is. The condition of Uttar Pradesh is the worst, where only 484 doctors are posted in community health centres and there is a shortage of 2,232 doctors.
She said that when this is the condition of a hospital in the state’s capital, then it can be guessed what the situation regarding available services will be at health centres functioning in the state’s towns and rural areas. She said that if the government does not provide safety kits to nurses, they will stop working. Not just nurses but doctors too are grappling with a paucity of safety kits for treatment of suspected and infected coronavirus patients. In a letter to AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria on March 16, doctors at Delhi-based AIIMS had said that they face a shortage of personal protection equipment such as eye-glasses, gloves and masks. A report by the Union Health Ministry says that there is an acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staff at hospitals across the country. Due to the scarcity of doctors, people hesitate from admitting patients to primary and community health centres. According to data, in the year 2019, there was a requirement of 21,340 doctors in 5,335 rural community health centres but only 3,881 doctors were posted there. This means that 17,459 posts of doctors are lying vacant. By means of one such community health centre, a population of around 80,000-1 lakh 20 thousand benefits from health services. It is not difficult to deduce how poor the ground reality is. The condition of Uttar Pradesh is the worst, where only 484 doctors are posted in community health centres and there is a shortage of 2,232 doctors.
Lack of doctors, nurses, masks and ventilators further add to the woes of the Indian healthcare system which currently seems unprepared to fight the #Covid_19india outbreak @RaGa_reports
— GoNewsIndia (@GoNews_India) March 23, 2020
More @ https://t.co/1jM0gYe7ue pic.twitter.com/fmPCwdKkN5
Latest Videos
