From stress to stigmatisation, they face it all but work diligently

“For the past three months, only those working here will understand the pressure we go through”

Livine Khrozhoh
Kohima, July 1(EMN): This year hasn’t been easy for everyone due to the outbreak of Covid-19 but nobody sacrifices like the doctors in this battle against the pandemic. Leaving the comfort of their homes, they work in close proximity with the patients knowing the risk involved and fight the disease, one recovery at a time.

On the occasion of National Doctors’ Day on July 1, which is observed to acknowledge the contributions of medical professionals to the society, Eastern Mirror spoke to some doctors to have a glimpse of their lives during this pandemic.

4-hour of sleep a day since February

“I usually start my day by 5 am and since we have to keep up with the reports, we check and crosscheck and stay in the office till 7-8 pm,” said Dr. Nyanthung Kikon, State nodal officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

He said that even after going home, he had to contact all the districts and also speak to media persons to answer their queries, clarifications and verifications, before making the last call of the day to BSL lab at around 11 pm.

‘I usually sleep by 1:00 am, so basically I sleep around four hours a day,’ he said exhaustedly. He updated that they started the whole activity by the end of January though the nationwide lockdown started in March.

“The work is not the same every day, but Covid-19 is such that we are faced with new challenges, new issues, social issues and other issues come up regularly, and therefore it is not only the health issues we are trying to deal with but so many other problems,” he stated.

In the districts, people working at the ground level like quarantine centres and district hospitals that have been turned to Covid hospitals are working much harder since they are facing the real time issues with the quarantine people and positive cases, he informed.

He said that he was not able to spend quality time with his children though they had returned home months back.

“The teams at the district have been working very diligently and no rest till now, but we are not immune or free from making mistakes. We sometimes make mistakes but I believe that gross-mistakes have not taken place,” he opined, adding that all the frontline workers are trying to give their best and will continue to do so.

Do not discriminate healthcare workers

“We want to let the public know that whatever we are doing is for their safety and benefit, so the day our staff finish their duty and go back home after finishing their facility quarantine and tested negative, they should not discriminate them,” said Dr. George Thira, senior specialist and spokesperson of Covid-19 hospital, Dimapur.

He shared that the healthcare workers are taking utmost care and precaution not to get infected, so if they are tested negative after duty, public should not have any fear.

The doctor said that healthcare workers initially faced lots of challenges with many colonies not allowing them to return to their houses, forcing the authorities to accommodate them in different hotels. He added that things are better now but it is still happening, and that is one of the social challenges they are facing.

24-hour coverage in wards

Dr. Thira informed that doctors and nurses work on roster system, wherein they are divided into three groups with 8-hour duty, covering 24 hours in the ward. After working for seven days, they are put in institutional quarantine for seven days before taking a test. If they are tested negative, they get back to work after three days, he said.

“We have a good team of doctors working here so we could pull through in a very good way,” he said, adding that converting District Hospital Dimapur to Covid hospital wasn’t easy as the building was very old.

“We need to think for the safety of the healthcare workers and also for the comfort of the patients; and with whatever resources we could manage, we built an infrastructure to a certain level,” he informed.

The doctor said that many patients had recovered and left the facility but when he called them to check their well-being, he was told that they had a comfortable stay at the hospital. ‘That’s the satisfaction we get after they are discharged from the Covid hospital,’ he said, adding that only family members could be contacted over the phone as the patients are advised to stay in isolation for some more time even at home.

“For the past three months, the work pressure we went through, only those working here will understand,” he said.

He shared that at one point of time, when the number of patients in the hospital rose to 88, they did not sleep. “Those who are working inside did not sleep and few of us who were outside managing all the necessary things, we hardly slept during those days,” he said.

He said that they didn’t get time to sit and relax for the past three months but the workload has come down after Covid care centres were set up in Chümoukedima and Sukhovi.

Work stress

A doctor from Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in Imphal, one of the main hospitals in Manipur that tests and treats Covid-19 patients, said they go through so much stress as they also fear being infected and wearing PPE suits during summer is very uncomfortable.

‘As the patients could have their own complains due to anxiety, doctors have to not only tend to their physical health but also mental well-being etc., and then we have to be quarantined again after the duty,’ said the doctor, who wished to remain anonymous.

“The doctors are not free; it is not like our usual duty before Covid-19,” he said, adding that they cannot go home but have to be quarantined after their 7-day duty.

For now, not all the doctors are assigned to the Covid-19 ward, but maybe things will change when the demand increases, he said.

The doctor said that the public should not treat the positive patients ‘badly’.

“Deal compassionately those who are tested positive and receive them warmly when everything is over,” he said. “We have to be careful as we are fighting against a virus and not the person.”

Asking the public not to take things lightly but live with more precautions, the doctor said there is no confirmed community spread as of today but “once it starts, it will be very difficult to contain and it will keep on spreading”.

“Healthy people may not suffer much but unfortunate persons may respond differently to the virus,” he cautioned, adding that everyone should take precautionary measures like wearing mask, maintaining social distancing and restrain from social gatherings.

“The whole world is affected, and so at this juncture we should be prayerful and humble ourselves as a Christian, and not be arrogant and break precautionary measures,” he concluded.