Medical students in final-year MBBS, PG may join Covid fight

NEW DELHI: Medical and nursing students could join the fight against Covid-19 as authorities consider various options to strengthen the health care workforce and provide protective cover to ageing doctors who are themselves at high risk of contracting the infection and, possibly, dying of it, people in the know said on Sunday.

The development came after sector experts suggested an allhands-on-deck approach with strategic protection to older specialists. The health ministry said in a recent guideline that dentists could be roped in for the anti-covid-19 effort too. “There are not more than 40,000 anaesthetists, who are specifically trained to handle ventilators, practising across the country. At least half of them are above the age of 50, who we would be putting at risk in a Covid-19 ICU. Of the others, most are in the cities. When we plan for the surge in cases, we should think of an AIIMS or other hospitals in the city which are usually training centres and have resident doctors,” said Dr Devi Shetty, chairman and founder of Narayana Health group. “The district hospitals, which would handle the bulk of the patients, have maybe 15 or at best 25 specialists and only about two anaesthetists. If these 200 to 300 bed hospitals are converted to critical care facilities, who will handle the cases? The latest national health profile shows an 85% shortage for the existing work,” said Dr Shetty. There were just over a million doctors registered with state medical councils in 2017, of which only 80% were estimated to be in active service, according to the government.