UP: Doctors in Unnao's govt hosps quit for being blamed for rise in Covid cases
Lucknow/IBNS: Over a dozen doctors in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district have resigned from their posts in rural hospitals, alleging that they are being made scapegoat for the surge in Covid-19 cases in the district, said media reports.
An NDTV report said that doctors tendered a joint resignation letter, the doctors said they are facing punitive action and bad behaviour despite working hard in the pandemic.
These doctors are in charge of the Community Health Centres and Primary Health Centres which act as frontline Health facilities to the villages.
Unnao district magistrate later said that the issue has been sorted out and the doctors have resumed work, the report said.
"We had spoken to them last evening itself and they had taken back their decision in the night itself. They met with me today. I listened to their problems and gave them solutions and have assured them their concerns will be attended to. We spoke in a cordial manner. This was an internal matter," district magistrate Ravindra Kumar said in a statement, reported NDTV.
The report quoted Dr Sharad Vaishya, one of the doctors who signed on the resignation letter, as saying: "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."
On Wednesday, several bodies were found buried at two locations by the banks of the Ganga in the district, hitting the national headlines.
Unnao has 1,980 active Covid cases at the moment while 84 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. No new fatalities were registered during the period.
Uttar Pradesh, which is fourth in the list of worst hit states, recorded 18,023 new cases and 326 deaths in the last 24 hours.
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