Unpaid salaries to lack of testing kits: Doctors' body divulges challenges to CM Uddhav

On Friday, the Association of Medical Consultants, Mumbai, wrote to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray drawing his attention to various grievances of the doctors' community. While acknowledging that the government had addressed some concerns such as a centralized system for bed allotment and halting the sealing of full hospital premises, it called upon Thackeray to act on specific observations concerning the COVID-19 situation. Maintaining that there was no dedicated facility to treat frontline healthcare workers who test positive for the novel coronavirus in Mumbai, it slammed the lack of compassion by the state government. Mumbai's COVID-19 tally swelled to 44,704 on June 4 till 6 pm as per the BMC. 

Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Centre Issues SOPs For 'Unlock' Phase -1; Cases At 2,26,770

Here is the list of issues flagged by the Association:

• Salaries of many frontline workers have been delayed
• Variability of salary for doctors between municipal and government hospitals
• COVID-19 testing not being allowed for pregnant women, elective surgeries, dialysis patients and patients on chemotherapy
• No evaluation done to analyze the incidence of infection among healthcare workers
• COVID hospitals are not being provided with a dedicated infection control team
• Lack of oxygen concentrators in various CCC2 facilities
• Capping of charges towards PPE kits
• Lack of security in government hospitals
• Fear of the disease among citizens leading to avoidable admissions in hospitals
• Cost to test a frontline worker in private hospitals is high
• A limited number of testing kits in government hospitals
• Absence of guidelines to deal with suspect COVID-19 patients
• Lack of clear guidelines for designating a private hospital as COVID hospital
• Lack of a dedicated treatment facility

Read: Mumbai's 'D' Ward: Guidelines For Reopening Of Shops In Covid 'Unlock 1' Released By BMC

Fadnavis demands increase in COVID-19 testing

Earlier on Thursday, Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Devendra Fadnavis pointed out that the percentage of tests done in Mumbai among the overall tests conducted in Maharashtra had witnessed a steep fall from 56% on May 1 to 27% on May 31. According to him, this was disturbing as the COVID-19 spread in Mumbai was the highest. He also questioned the steady rise in Maharashtra's death toll and cited reports that the words 'COVID-19' and 'suspected COVID-19' had been purged from many deceased's death certificates.

Fadnavis reckoned that people attending the final rites of such individuals were susceptible to the novel coronavirus. The BJP leader maintained that it was necessary to at least double the number of tests as 32% of the samples in Mumbai from May 1 to May 24 had tested positive for COVID-19. He reiterated that the BMC was conducting only 3500-4000 tests daily in Mumbai despite having a capacity of 10,000 tests. Taking a jibe at Thackeray, Fadnavis remarked that no advantage would be gained by twisting the COVID-19 figures. 

Read: Coronavirus Count In India Surge Past 2.17 Lakh, Mumbai Continues To Be Worst Hit