Doctors from government hospitals in districts will be brought to Calcutta and taken to Covid-19 treatment centres to allay fears about the disease, state government officials said on Monday.

Members of the health department’s Covid monitoring team who are visiting hospitals in districts and in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta have found that Covid phobia that had once gripped many doctors in the city has spread among healthcare workers there.

“Covid has claimed the lives of several doctors in Bengal over the past few weeks. That and the fact that more and more healthcare workers in government hospitals in districts are testing positive for the virus are among the reasons for the spread of the phobia,” an official said.

There are allegations that doctors and nurses in some district hospitals were not going near Covid patients. In some hospitals, patients who needed ventilators were reportedly turned away because doctors were scared that intubating such patients could get them infected.

“Doctors from these hospitals in districts will be brought to Calcutta in small groups. They will visit government hospitals in the city that are treating Covid patients, such as MR Bangur Superspeciality Hospital and Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beleghata. The doctors from the districts will be shown how their colleagues in the city hospitals are treating Covid patients by following all safety protocols,” said an official involved in Covid management in Bengal.

The number of critical Covid patients and deaths resulting from the disease has been on the rise in districts.

“It is crucial at this juncture to allay fears about Covid among healthcare workers in districts. Putting pressure on them to treat Covid patients will not work. We need to dispel the fear and counsel and train them,” the official said.

At Calcutta hospitals, doctors from districts will be shown how their counterparts are ventilating Covid patients by wearing personal protective equipment.

“Most of the doctors from districts have only theoretical knowledge about the safety measures, like it was in Calcutta in the initial days of the pandemic. So, when they are facing situations on the ground, they are gripped by panic,” said a health department official.

A member of the Covid management monitoring team who had visited hospitals in several districts said many elderly doctors had told them that they had comorbidities like diabetes and hypertension and so were scared to approach Covid patients. “This has brought down the morale of their juniors, too,” he said.

“Now doctors know about the safety measures but still some get infected. But that should not be the reason for not seeing Covid patients,” said Arunabha Sengupta, professor in the ENT department at SSKM Hospital.

Sengupta, who has recently recovered from Covid, said he and his team of doctors were seeing around 300 to 400 patients at the OPD every day and performing seven to eight procedures.