Many doctors who are on the front lines of India’s fierce pandemic surge are almost at the breaking point and fearful for their own lives. The reason was low pay, 24-hour shifts and severe shortages of staff, medicines and protective gears.

Approximately 165,000 people in the South Asian nation have died due to coronavirus infections since April, a home to some of the most densely populated cities in the world.

Even though India’s latest COVID-19 surge has alleviated to some extent recently, around 3,000 deaths are still reported every day and the chronically underfunded healthcare system is under severe pressure.

Radha Jain, a doctor in New Delhi, said that they are overworked, stressed and very scared. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) stated that over 1,200 doctors have succumbed to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, with more than 500 doctors in the last 2 months.

Dr. Deependra Garg, in New Delhi’s outskirts says the situation has become terrible. His wife Dr. Anubha, 48 years old, fell ill with COVID-19 in April. They started her treatment at home but her condition worsened and like many other families, they too struggled to get a hospital bed.

He finally found one bed almost 200 kilometres from their home. But Anubha, who was though fully vaccinated, died within two weeks, leaving their 12-year-old daughter behind. Garg said that they are on the front lines 24/7 and are exposed to a high virus load but have to continue working against all odd situations as they have chosen this profession and they do not have a choice.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed structural weaknesses in the healthcare system of India, particularly in the state-run hospitals that are ill-equipped. Reports have emerged from short-staffed hospitals that patients are lying on floors and sharing beds in fully packed wards. Family members are protected with only cotton masks and take care of their sick loved ones.

The Indian government spends below 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare, which is one of the lowest rates in the world.India had only 0.8 doctors per 1,000 people in 2017, same level as Iraq, as per the World Bank. The other two countries that were worst hit by the coronavirus infection, Brazil and the USA, had 2.2 and 2.6 respectively. India needs 600,000 more doctors and two million extra nurses to meet the current healthcare needs.

Dr Shekhar Kumar, from a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s northern state, said that the junior staff and final-year medical students had to work 24-hour shifts at many times. They were further stretched as their colleagues fell ill with the infection. 

Doctors said that they are so traumatised as they are forced to choose which patients to save first due to insufficient supplies of medicine and oxygen support.

Ravikant Singh, the founder of a charity group who are helping to set up COVID-19 field hospitals, said that he actually struggled to sleep for a few nights. The worst part was they could not save many patients because of the lack of oxygen.

Doctors said that they get worried about infecting their families at home even after completing their exhausting shifts.

Source: Aljazeera