Lok Nayak hospital and Maulana Azad Medical College doctors and medical students have launched a sit-in protest outside the office of the director demanding for non-COVID services be resumed. The 2,000-bed hospital had been converted into a dedicated COVID-19 treatment facility from April. Only 166 beds from the hospital were occupied on Monday as the spread of coronavirus disease is under control in Delhi. The postgraduate students, resident doctors and interns, who are to be trained in their respective fields were managing only COVID-19 patients since then.

Dr Keshave Singh, who is the president of the resident doctor’s association in the hospital said that a student’s post graduate training is for three years, and almost a year is gone without receiving any education in their respective fields. PG students from medicine and anaesthesia units were treating the serious COVID-19 patients in the ICU. The rest of them along with those studying surgery were included in a central COVID duty in other departments of the hospital.

The hospital has approximately 2,500 doctors who are undergoing training and 1,250 students studying MBBS, 250 are interns, 600 are postgraduate students, 300 are senior residents who work with doctors in their respective field, and 50 are super speciality students.

Dr Singh further said that the college is not open for MBBS students and even they need practical experience in the hospital. They have demanded that the college to be opened as MAMC and the University College of Medical Sciences that are run by the Delhi government are the only institutes who have not started classes till now.

The doctors are raising this demand since September onwards. There had been few discussions on allowing the students to work in other Delhi government hospitals, but no one has been allocated till now. AIIMS and PGI Chandigarh recently held their PG entrance exam. Three of the top 10 spots went to interns from MAMC but they did not get an internship completion certificate, as they were treating only COVID-19 patients and their training is incomplete.

Dr Rajan Sharma, National President of Indian Medical Association said that the doctors require holistic training and they don’t have to become COVID specialists. The doctors are taught first the basics in MBBS, then they do post-graduation and then work with senior doctors in the respective field to get experience before starting their own work. If they miss this process, then we will have untrained doctors.

Also, the 1st year post graduate students from the hospital were assigned at COVID Care Centres and dispensaries. They were supposed to treat coronavirus patients, but they were doing only clerical work. They were wasting their precious time that was required for training. The association is requesting the government to get them back to the hospital and start their training.

The other non-teaching hospitals can be converted into COVID-19 hospitals as Lok Nayak hospital is managing only sick COVID patients. It will ensure that the teaching and training of the most prestigious medical college is not hampered for a whole year.

Dr Suresh Kumar, Director of the hospital has refused to give any comment. But a senior official said that the decision is with the government. The hospital has submitted a plan to partially open the non-COVID services. The decision is to be taken by the government now.

Source: Hindustan Times