The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has slammed the Government for failing to reveal the data on the number of healthcare staff who have been affected and who died from Covid-19, when the Parliament debated the issue.
It said that at least 382 doctors across the country have lost their lives in the line of duty so far, but Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan could not come up with the number of fatalities occurred in the medical fraternity when asked by MP Binoy Viswam in Parliament recently.
Besides, the IMA, which represents a battery of private doctors from across the country. also released the data of the doctors who died due to Covid-19.
“Health is a state subject. Such data is not maintained at Central level,” Vardhan had told Viswam in a written reply.
In a reaction to Vardhan’s statement, the IMA said, “If a government does not maintain the statistics of total number of doctors and health care 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.”
The IMA also stated that the reply by the Union Minister also exposes the hypocrisy of calling the healthcare workers ‘corona warriors’ while denying them and their families the status and benefits of martyrdom.
The IMA also expressed concerns at the huge number of deaths of doctors and health care workers.
“Doctors suffered four times mortality of ordinary citizens, and private practitioners suffered eight times mortality on the same scale. To feign that this information does not merit the attention of the nation is abominable,” said the IMA.
The doctors’ body also objected to the statement made by Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, Minister of State (MoS) for Health, that insurance compensation data is not available with the Union Government in Parliament.
“IMA 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 added.
