As the coronavirus caseload in Telangana continues to surge by the day, the overstretched doctors cannot seem to wrap their heads around the State government’s decision to go ahead with municipal elections.
Elections are scheduled to be held for 248 wards in Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation and Khammam Municipal Corporation, as well as Atchampet, Nakrekal, Siddipet, Jadcherla and Kothur municipalities. The polls will be held on April 30.
“Are political leaders trying to be super spreaders of coronavirus? All of us are seeing how widespread the virus is. Even if we go by official numbers in the daily media bulletin, daily cases have crossed 8,000 on Saturday. As doctors, we witness first-hand how patients and their family members are suffering in these times. Holding elections in these times can be disastrous,” said a doctor of a government hospital, requesting anonymity.
The medical fraternity in the State has been questioning the rationale behind holding the elections from the time campaigning to theNagarjuansagar by-polls kicked off. The polls were held on April 17.
With the municipal elections round the corner, they are once again raising concerns and expressing helplessness. “We hope our doctor associations can prevail upon the authorities concerned to postpone the elections. People must also think over what is important in these tragic times — elections or lives,” the doctor said.
Concerns raised earlier
A few days ago, the Forum for Good Governance had also requested the State Election Commission to postpone the upcoming polls in view of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
Finding a ventilator bed in a hospital in and around Hyderabad has become a challenge, and people are forced to spend ₹50,000-60,000 at private hospitals. In such a scenario, politicians must rise to the occasion, opines a senior doctor, adding, “We all know that many politicians in our State either own private medical colleges or have high stakes in them. They must step forward in these times and open their medical colleges to COVID-19 patients and announce what kind of services would be available there”.
Politicians need not offer medical services free of cost, says the doctor: “They can charge according to the rates decided by the State government.”
Top doctors in government and corporate hospitals have been insisting on the involvement of private medical colleges in sharing the load of mild and moderate patients so that tertiary care centres can admit only critically-ill patients.
Beds data at private medical colleges are listed on ‘health.telangana.gov.in’.
