Maha: Private Doctors Excluded From Priority List Of COVID Vaccine Receivers, IMA Sees Red

Calling it as utter injustice, the association stated that the private doctors have also rendered services amidst the constant exposure to the disease as much as the government doctors and they are entitled to be enlisted in the priority list of COVID-19 receivers just like the government doctors.

This came after the government announced that the Corona vaccine will be available to all the citizens of India in the next three months and it will first be given to all the doctors in the country who treated the corona patients regardless of their own lives in the coronavirus epidemic. They have been given priority, considering their constant dedication and service in containing the pandemic.

The Central Government finalized to set up a database for this purpose and published a booklet of guidelines in this regard. In these guidelines, it was stated that all government and private hospitals, government doctors, as well as all health workers in private clinics, day OPDs, polyclinics will be given priority. The central government then directed all the states to collect the information accordingly.

Accordingly, the Health Secretary of the Government of Maharashtra sent an official letter, on 23rd October, to all District Collectors, Municipal Commissioners, and Divisional Commissioners. However, Maharashtra authorities allegedly changed the guidelines given by the Central Government.

After the central order, in a subsequent meeting with all the district collectors, the Health Secretary of Maharashtra directed that only the doctors and medical staff of the hospitals registered under the Bombay Nursing Home Act should be registered This led to the exclusion of doctors from privately run hospitals, clinics, pathology clinics, X-ray-Sonography clinics.

The letter addressed to the Prime Minister signed by IMA state president Dr. Avinash Bhondwe reads, "Along with government doctors, private medical professionals have also played a key role in treating patients in the corona epidemic. Of the 61 private doctors who died of corona in Maharashtra, the number of General Practitioners and Private Clinic owners was higher. Yet, we feel that they have been left out for the reason known only to the Govt."

The association in their letter also pointed out that "earlier, the Government of Maharashtra had rejected the applications of 61 private doctors in Maharashtra for 'Korona Kavach' the posthumous insurance of Rs 50 lakh, declared by the Central Govt., citing similar grievances. Private Doctors have always been denied their requests for getting PPE kits, masks from a certified company, and at reasonable prices."

The letter further affirmed that "as per the guidelines given by the central government, many of the states in India have begun to include private doctors in their database. But our Maharashtra Government is treating all these private doctors with great disdain."

Hence, the association has appealed to the government authorities and the Prime Minister himself to look into this matter of "utter injustice on all the private doctors' and to take necessary steps accordingly.