Uttar Pradesh: 14 doctors from rural hospitals quit citing harassment

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“We are being ‘reviewed’ all the time. Our teams are out on the field all day, giving medicines to Covid positive patients, helping them isolate, giving samples for testing… then at around 4-5 pm the deputy district head calls us for reviews… we are then duty bound to go and give this review to the administrative heads… but we are blamed even if medicines are in short supply, or if some patient has given an incorrect address and cannot be verified…,” says a Doctor, one of many who are in charge of Community Health Centres and Primary Health Care centres in Unnao. He along with many colleagues have quit, citing official harassment and being subjected to threats and abusive language.

14 doctors incharge of rural @UPGovt hospitals in Unnao quit their posts last evening , saying they were fed up of ‘misbehaviour’ by superiors and endless #Covid review meetings . This is one of the doctors who signed on the joint resignation letter …. pic.twitter.com/XUSQK5WJa5
— Alok Pandey (@alok_pandey) May 13, 2021

These so-called ‘reviews’, say the doctors take place arbitrarily, and the onus is put on the frontline healthcare worker “to prove we worked” to the bureaucrats in charge. These doctors are essentially working in rural hospitals that provide frontline healthcare to villages, and say they are working long days to help combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Uttar Pradesh, which has been badly hit by Covid-19, has reported over 18,023 new cases in the last 24 hours. The Union Health Ministry data stated that around. 326 Covid patients had died in the 24 hour period. According to reports, Uttar Pradesh is the fourth worst Covid-19-hit state.

However, the red tape and bureaucratic high-handedness that these 14 government doctors in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao, have alleged, are an example of how the pandemic is more than that of Coronavirus. According to an NDTV report, these doctors have resigned en-masse from their posts alleging that “they are being made the scapegoats for the rise in Covid infections in the district”. According to the doctor, the administration seems to blame them when medications are in short supply even though they have been raising invoices for procurements regularly.

The 14 doctors who quit are posted at Community Health Centres and Primary Health Care centres in Unnao, perhaps the only access to medical care for the villagers. According to NDTV, 11 of the 14 doctors who signed on a joint resignation letter, also visited the office of Unnao’s chief medical officer on Wednesday evening and handed it over to his deputy. The letter, cited by NDTV, states that “despite working hard in the pandemic, punitive action and bad behavior” is being hurled at the doctors. The report quotes Dr Sharad Vaishya, one of the doctors who quit as saying, “Our teams are working round the clock, but it seems we are being marked out for ‘not working’. The DM, other officials, even the SDM and the tehsildar are all supervising us and holding review meetings. Our teams leave at noon, track and isolate Covid positive patients, get sampling done, distribute medicines and then, once we are back, we get calls from SDM asking to come for review meetings. Even if someone is posted 30 km away, he or she is bound to travel all the 30 km for these review meetings. We have to prove that we have worked. It seems it is being suggested that because we are not working, the Covid infection is spreading.”

Meanwhile, the administration is now on the path to pour oil on troubled waters. District magistrate Ravindra Kumar told the media that the administration was “talking to the doctors. The Chief Minister’s Office has spoken to them, and we will find a solution to the problem. They are part of our team. They are not strangers. We will get over this.”