10 senior doctors and 70 nurses in Telangana resign due to lack of protective equipments

As many as 10 senior doctors and 70 nurses working at various hospitals in the state have resigned due to the lack of protective gear to fight with the deadly coronavirus. The senior doctors were rendering the services at Osmania Medical College (OMC) and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) hospital in Warangal.

The doctors said that they have resigned due to the poor protection gear. While some quit the services temporarily until the pandemic gets over. So far, 300 doctors and other medical personnel have contracted the virus. Lack of protection gear and long working hours were even forcing the doctors to go on strike.

A senior doctor who resigned from Osmania Medical College said that there is a threat of infection while working and no proper personal protection equipment (PPE) kits are being given.

“There is no proper staff, no infrastructure and no PPE kits at the hospitals,” he said. While some doctors never reported to the duty, some resigned after working for two or three months.

According to Dr. Mahesh Kumar, president of the Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) said that six senior doctors from the medicine department at Osmania General Hospital and remaining from MGM hospital have resigned.

Coronavirus in Telangana

With the pandemic slowly surging across the country, Telangana, has been one of the worst affected states in the southern part of the country. The total number of coronavirus caseloads in Telangana have swelled to 22,300 with the fatalities reaching 288 in the state.

A study by Professor Shamika Ravi has revealed that Telangana is a combination of exponential rise in daily new cases and very poor testing which is as low as 19 confirmed cases per 100 tests. Earlier today a female doctor, who contracted coronavirus while treating other patients, had to shell out over Rs 1 lakh for 1-day treatment at a private hospital. In a video that had gone viral, she could be heard stating that the hospital kept her hostage and the nurses misbehaved with her.