Scores of junior doctors, who work as frontline workers against the coronavirus pandemic at the Kashmir Valley’s main government-run tertiary care hospital, Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital, on Thursday accused the administration of failing to provide them any allowances, insurance cover or stay facility.
Scores of medical interns, who were deployed for the COVID-19 duty, have sought the intervention of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and demanded that they also be given the recently announced extra allowance for the frontline workers in the Union Territory (UT), where resident doctors and medical officers were given ₹10,000 extra per month.
“We have not been included in the allowance category despite being on the COVID-19 duty. This is injustice to us,” Dr. Tajamul Islam.
He said around 40 interns had tested positive since the second wave started in March this year. “We have no insurance cover. We demand insurance cover for us as well as our family members, who are also vulnerable due to our prolonged duty hours,” Dr. Islam said.
Meanwhile, resident doctors have asked the administration to provide a stay facility around the hospital. “Doctors work in COVID-19 wards the whole day and are asked to go home, putting the families of doctors at risk,” a resident doctor said.
According to the Resident Doctors Association, more than 100 resident doctors of the Government Medical College, Srinagar, and an even higher number of their family members had tested positive in the second wave.
