GUWAHATI: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that all government doctors in the state were working like a team in the “battle against COVID-19” and that there have been no complaints regarding their duty hours.
Reacting to the Assam branch of the Indian Medical Association’s reservations against the state government’s “policy changes” in regard to the COVID-19 situation, Sarma said, “I have visited many government hospitals but none of our doctors have mentioned about any problems during duty hours.”
“On the contrary, they have been uncompromising in regard to fulfilling their duties as COVID warriors. We are all working as a team here. So I do not know about any demands of private doctors but our medical practitioners are always ready to serve patients,” Sarma told reporters here on Wednesday.
In a letter to the health minister on Tuesday, the IMA, Assam branch, claimed that “the successful Assam model would collapse in no time if the government took closed door and whimsical decisions instead of taking experienced healthcare professionals and groups into confidence while planning to face challenges against COVID-19.”
The association demanded a review by the government in regard to the “large number of health workers and doctors affected by the disease while working with the disease.”
It further criticised the government’s order of engaging health workers and doctors in 11 days’ continuous service in the COVID wards and thereafter putting them on only three days of quarantine before re-engaging them in COVID duty.
