The Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), on May 4 made it mandatory for the private practitioners to serve at hospitals treating COVID-19 patients for a minimum of 15 days or may lose their license. In four days the DMER has received 2,000 applications and most doctors have many queries before they fill the form and accept the condition.

On Wednesday night, a webinar was organized for personal doctors, with Dr TP Lahane, director of DMER, clearing their misgivings about the order. The webinar discussed various points mentioned within the email sent out for utilization of the services of registered medical practitioners to fight COVID-19.

Dr Lahane clarified that doctors with MBBS degrees would be paid Rs 50,000, and people with MD/MS degrees between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1 lakh. Intensivists would get Rs 1.5 lakh. Duties would be allotted as per their choice.

It was also made clear that if the doctors were already taking care of COVID-19 patients in hospitals, they might not be reassigned work.

Those on maternity leave would be exempted if the baby is a smaller amount than one year aged. No pregnant doctor would be allotted work.

“We need a minimum 5,000 doctors immediately for May and June. Cases will certainly rise, but we've to regulate the virus with all possible measures. The doctors should come to the fore to assist the govt to fight the pandemic”, Dr Lahane was quoted saying.

The doctors were assured that they might get insurance of Rs 50 lakh within the event of any illness while on duty. The treatment would be freed from cost. The best-quality PPEs would be provided to them, and that they would work for 6-8 hours, said Dr Lahane.

Dr Parthiv Sanghvi, Hon Surgeon at HBT Hospital, Jogeshwari East, a delegated Covid-19 facility, welcomed the directive from the DMER. He, however, asked if the order meant that doctors would need to stop catering to their non-COVID patients.

Another doctor wanted to understand what role specialist doctors like oncologists, orthopedic surgeons, and psychiatrists would have in treating the coronavirus patients since they weren't physicians. He also said that the remuneration offered by the govt was very less.

Dr Prince Surana, CEO of three hospitals, said that a minimum of 50 doctors is currently working in his hospitals and handling non-COVID cases. “How will I run the hospital if my doctors leave for Covid-19 duty. There are many questions that are still answered,” he said.