Doctors' Association for Social Equality demands PPE for doctors not treating COVID patients too

Dr Ravindranath GR, the general secretary of DASE said that all health workers, those who enter the hospital for any kind of work including students and even ambulance workers deserve to wear PPEs
Even those who are not doctors, deserve PPEs, DASE feels
Even those who are not doctors, deserve PPEs, DASE feels

The Doctors' Association for Social Equality (DASE) has issued a statement demanding that all doctors (and medical students) and not just those treating COVID-19 patients should be given Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as they treat patients. After a Supreme Court order directed the hospital administration do the same, DASE reiterated the demand they've been making for a long time.

The Supreme Court passed an order on April 27 directing the Centre to make awavilable PPE to non-COVID-19 doctors and healthcare workers as well. the court in its order said, "We find substance in the petitioner's suggestions that the non-COVID doctors and healthcare professionals should be given PPEs to treat those patients of non-COVID."

In the release, Dr Ravindranath GR, General Secretary of DASE said that all health workers — especially those who enter the hospital for any kind of work including students and even ambulance workers — deserve to wear PPEs. This comes in the wake of reports that several medical students and residents have been mutinous in their approach to treating COVID-19 patients because of the lack of PPEs. "There can be people who have a broken leg or other diseases that have nothing to do with COVID. But they will enter a hospital to see another doctor and the doctor could be exposed to the virus and that's where the risk is," he said in the statement.

The risk is the same. "Gynaecologists, paediatricians, so many doctors are going about their regular duty but that doesn't mean that they don't need a PPE. But not just the doctors, everyone else who works in the hospital, including the lab technicians and the medical students who are working deserve the protection," the Association said. 

Ambulances workers were also mentioned in the statement, "The 108 ambulance workers are also putting their life at risk. They deserve to keep themselves safe. We have been making this demand countless times over the last few weeks but no one has listened to us. So now that we have the High court order, we hope are reiterating our demand and hoping that at least now they'll listen to us."

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