Apex Court asks Govt to take all measures for safety of healthcare workers; Salaries of medicos won’t be cut, Solicitor General assures court
Afaq Bhat
Srinagar, Apr 8: Increase in number of COVID-19 cases across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, has created fear among the medical fraternity that they too can fall prey to the deadly virus while treating the patients.
According to media reports medicos are demanding that they should be provided with the proper protective gear to treat the COVID-19 positive patients. “A doctor, who tested positive for the deadly virus in Jammu, earlier this month, was head of the testing team which was collecting the samples of the COVID-19 suspects,” a media report said.
It said that along with the doctor his wife and his father also tested positive for the COVID-19. After the doctor tested positive some media reports said that every attempt was made to send a message that he was not dealing with the COVID-19 suspects. But the attempt failed as the duty roster punctured the “blatant lie.”
In Kashmir, a nurse also tested positive for the deadly virus on Tuesday. “We have to ensure that we are able to protect the members of medical fraternity and even if they get infected we should support them,” an observer told Precious Kashmir.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday described the healthcare workers as “warriors” fighting Coronavirus pandemic and asked the Union government to take all measures for safety of healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients.
A two-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Ravindra Bhat was hearing a plea filed by Nagpur-based doctor Jerryl Banait, seeking availability of head cover, face shield, medical masks, shower cover among others for doctors in tier II and tier III cities along with metro cities.
An analyst said that it’s not J&K only where medicos are fighting COVID-19 without the proper protective gear. “The PIL filed in the Apex Court is an indication that medicos are fighting a tough battle that too without arms. We have to secure them before it becomes too late.”
Another matter which came up for hearing in Supreme Court on Wednesday was about the reports of salary cut of doctors and staff at government hospitals in some States, the Solicitor General ensured the court that there would be no pay cut for the health staff. “We will be writing a letter to all States that no salary of any government doctor or staff should be deducted. No deduction from salary to buy masks and PPE,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court.
“It’s unfortunate that some States are mulling to deduct the salaries of the doctors and other medical staff. If this happens in one State it will become a trend across the country and other regions will also follow the suit. We should support our medical fraternity in every possible way in these crisis times. Rather than bogging them with the issues which can make them tense. We need to follow the footsteps of the countries, where COVID-19 has turned into a full blown crisis. But these countries have stood by the healthcare workers,” another analyst added.
‘Secure medicos to fight COVID-19’
