Key Points :
- Mr Harshavardhan didn’t mention the death of healthcare workers due to COVID 19 in the parliament because of which the IMA published a list of 382 dead doctors and demanded to treat them like martyrs.
- The IMA found it strange that after formulating an unfriendly partial insurance scheme for the Doctors’ Families to struggle with the ignominy of the government disowning them .
- According to IMA data as of September 16, 2238 doctors are infected and 382 lost their lives.
- The IMA stated such an act reveals the hypocrisy of calling the doctors as COVID warriors on one hand and denying them and their families the status and benefits of martyrdom.
- The body published a list of 382 doctors who died in this pandemic along with their addresses and stressed that their families and children deserve solace and solatium from the government.
Taking exception to Health Minister Mr. Harsh Vardhan not mentioning the death of healthcare workers due to COVID-19 in his statement in Parliament, the IMA on Wednesday published a list of 382 doctors who died due to the viral disease and demanded that they be treated as “martyrs”.
On MoS Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey’s statement that public health and the built hospitals come under states and so insurance compensation data and the record is not available with the Centre, the doctors’ body said that it amounts to “abdication of duty and abandonment of the national heroes who have stood up for our people”.
“The IMA (Indian Medical Association) finds it strange that after having formulated an unfriendly partial insurance scheme for the bereaved families to struggle with the ignominy of the government disowning them altogether stares at them,” it said.
According to the COVID-19 data by IMA on September 16, as many as 2,238 doctors were infected with the disease and of them 382 lost their lives, a senior official of the doctors’ body said.
Vardhan’s statement being referred – the IMA said the “19th paragraph acknowledges the contribution of healthcare workers during this pandemic, but “conceals” the morbidity and mortality of doctors, medical practitioners, healthcare workers and nurses.”
The doctors’ body terming this as a severe indifference said, “No nation has lost as many doctors and healthcare workers like India. Doctors suffer four times mortality of ordinary citizens and private practitioners suffer eight times mortality on the same scale.”
“To feign that this information doesn’t merit the attention of the nation is abominable. If the government doesn’t maintain the statistics of the total number of doctors and healthcare workers infected by COVID- 19 and the statistics of how many of them sacrificed their life due to the pandemic, it loses the moral authority to administer the Epidemic Act 1897 and the Disaster Management Act.”
Such an act reveals the hypocrisy of calling them corona warriors on one hand and denying them and their families the status and benefits of martyrdom,” the IMA stated.
Publishing a list of 382 doctors who died in the COVID-19 pandemic, along with their addresses, it said, “We demand they be acknowledged and treated as martyrs.”
Their families and children deserve solace and solatium from the government, the IMA stressed.
“The IMA also commends to the government that they seek such data from the representatives of nurses and other healthcare workers,” the statement said.
The doctor’s body said that it had also shared hundreds of suggestions and feedback during this national health emergency, with the health ministry .
“The prime minister deemed it fit to invite the national president of IMA to a meeting to share the concerns and seek suggestions and cooperation. The suo moto statement of the health minister preferred to ignore the national dimension of the war against COVID-19,” it said in the statement.
