Chief minister Hemant Soren may have called for restarting outpatient departments (OPDs) of private and government hospitals and clinics in phases to lessen the burden on premier medical institutions engaged in the treatment of Covid-19 patients, but such private facilities have their own problems.

They pointed to practical hurdles in enforcing social distancing norms, and the fear of the administration’s wrath.

“We have never asked doctors to shut their clinics or nursing homes,” said Sushil Kumar, secretary of the Dhanbad district unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), who also operates a private clinic. “Rather, we are advocating operation of the OPDs by strictly adhering to guidelines such as allowing limited number of patients every day, filling up forms by patients to give details of any travel history before undergoing treatment at OPD or emergency, also details such as name, mobile phone number and address of the patients for future references. Carrying out thermal scanning of patients at the institution gate and proper sanitising of the clinic regularly are also being advocated.

“We are, however, aware of the practical difficulties in adherence to all the norms because of various factors such as lack of awareness among people about the significance of social distancing, lack of cooperation from the administration side in maintaining social distance, and also the unwillingness of patients to pay extra charges as the cost of treatment increases when we follow all the guidelines. Doctors and medical staff have to use PPE (personal protective equipment) kits but the cost of a kit is around Rs 1,600,” said Sushil.

“The insensitivity of the administrative officials towards the doctors engaged in the treatment of patients at the risk their own lives can be gauged from the fact that a reputable doctor from Jharia was humiliated by a senior administrative official in Dhanbad when the official saw a crowd outside the doctor’s clinic around a week ago,” Sushil added

The burden of crowd management, he pointed out, should be the responsibility of the administration and cannot solely rest on the hospitals.

Dhanbad has around 250 nursing homes and clinics but only some paediatricians and gynaecologists are attending to patients and some important surgeries are being performed.

A rough estimate suggests only 10 to 15 per cent of the total 250 nursing homes and clinics are working now.