The doctors, in the letter, say that despite working hard in the pandemic, punitive action and bad behavior is being meted out to doctors without any basis.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao, just 40 km from the capital Lucknow, fourteen government doctors who are in charge of rural hospitals in the district, have resigned from their posts saying they are being made the scapegoats for the rise in Covid infections in the district.
The doctors manage Community Health Centres and Primary Health Care centres in Unnao. Both these places are rural hospitals that provide frontline healthcare to villages.
Among the 14 doctors who signed on a joint resignation letter, eleven visited the office of Unnao’s chief medical officer on Wednesday evening and handed over the letter to his deputy. The doctors, in the letter, say that despite working hard in the pandemic, punitive action and bad behavior is being meted out to doctors without any basis.
Dr Sharad Vaishya, one of the doctors who signed on the resignation letter, said: “The problem is that 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.”
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
“We are 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,” district magistrate Ravindra Kumar told the media in a late-night statement.
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