382 Doctors Have Died Of COVID-19 in India, Medical Body Reveals

The Indian Medical Association on Wednesday, 16 September, criticised the statement made by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in the parliament, and called it out for neglecting doctors who died in the line of duty.

In its response, the IMA revealed that at least 382 doctors have died of coronavirus. It has also released a list of fatalities among healthcare workers, wherein the youngest doctor to lose his life was 27-year-old and the oldest was 85.

According to an NDTV report, while the parliamentary statement acknowledged the contribution of healthcare workers, it claimed that the Centre has no statistical data on healthcare workers who died during the pandemic.

The statement has received much flak from the IMA. The top medical body accused the government of "indifference," "abdication," and "abandonment of heroes."

“While the brave soldiers on the borders countenance the enemy, they do so with enormous risk to themselves. Yet none of them bring home the bullets to be shared with their families. On the contrary, doctors and health care workers not only get infected in the line of their national duty but also bring home the infection to their families, including children. To treat these martyrs indifferently is national sacrilege. To tell their (doctors) families and children to fend for themselves is an injustice of highest order.”

Indian Medical Association.

Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey's statement in the parliament said that the central government does not have any compensation data as public health and hospitals come under the states.

Responding to it, the IMA said "This amounts to abdication of duty and abandonment of the national heroes who have stood up for our people. 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."

Such a response towards healthcare workers indicates the "hypocrisy of calling them corona warriors on one hand and denying them and their families the status and benefits of martyrdom," the IMA stated.

“To feign that this information doesn’t merit the attention of the nation is abominable.”

Indian Medical Association

"It appears that they are dispensable. No nation has lost as many doctors and health care workers like India," it said, adding that, "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.”

(With inputs from NDTV and IANS)