‘Govt’s decision to rope in medical interns will add 1 lakh personnel in fight against Covid’

KEY STORY

• In a bid to fight the deadly second wave of Covid-19, the government today took key decisions to boost the availability of medical personnel. The government has decided to rope in final year medical and nursing students for Covid-19 related duties.

• The move is aimed to overcome the staff shortage faced by several hospitals and government health centres amid rising cases of coronavirus in healthcare and frontline workers.

• The government will give incentives to medical and nursing students for imparting duties related to Covid-19 management. All medics eligible to be engaged in covid-related work will be vaccinated on priority.

• These additional health professionals will be covered under the government’s insurance scheme. They will also be given priority in the government recruitment drive on completing 100 days of duties.

• A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said “The individuals providing services in COVID management will be given priority in forthcoming regular government recruitments after they complete a minimum of 100 days of COVID duty.”

• The government has also decided to postpone NEET-PG exams for at least four months to make a large number of qualified doctors available for COVID duties, says PMO.

• “We’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of Covid-19 cases being added every single day, government’s decision is a way to ramp up our healthcare infrastructure”, says Dr. Shashank Joshi, Covid-19 taskforce member of Maharashtra.

• Dr. Joshi expects around one lakh medical personnel across the country to join the medical force in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking to ET NOW, Dr. Joshi says medical trainees can be utilized for treating and monitoring mild covid cases via tele-consultation, and resources can be allocated efficiently based on the qualification.

• Viren Shetty, ED & Group COO of Narayana Health says “The move by centre to boost the availability of medical personnel will be a temporary relief. We are severely short-staffed. We are currently working with 1/10th doctors & 1/5th nursing staff. But we need to see whether Final year MBBS students decide to take up Covid duties.

• ” Speaking to ET NOW, Viren Shetty added that ‘not everyone will be motivated with certificates’ and government should have added incentives like giving grace marks or concessions ahead for young students to push them to take up Covid-19 duties”

CONCLUSION

• The government’s announcement comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the growing need for adequate human resources in India’s fight against Covid-19’s deadly second wave.

• India reported as many as 3,68,147 Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative caseload to 1,99,25,604 according to the Union Health Ministry.