UP: Doctors asked to share pics, videos of Covid-19 ward visit

LUCKNOW: Senior doctors of government and private medical institutions in UP will now have to click photographs and shoot videos of themselves while doing rounds in Covid-19 wards and send them to the state medical education department every day.
The move is to ensure that senior doctors are following up with their Covid-19 ward duties.
The order also mandates that the photographs and videos should be sent to the department via email by 6pm along with a date and time stamp.
“Sometimes patients complain that senior doctors don’t visit them by the bedside. The order will serve as a precaution on that front,” said director general of medical education (DGME) Dr KK Gupta.
When asked if the doctors have started mailing the photographs, Gupta replied in affirmative and said that the doctors were seen wearing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) in the images.
“We of course cannot recognise who it is in the images because of the PPE, but we have to allow that much credibility to our doctors,” he added.
The directive has been sent by the DGME to vice-chancellors of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) and UPUMS in Saifai and, directors of SGPGIMS, RML Institute of Medical Sciences, SSPHTI in Greater Noida, GIMS in Noida, Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University.
Apart from senior faculty members on duty in Covid-19 wards in these medical institutions, senior doctors in government medical colleges of Kanpur, Agra, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Jhansi and Prayagraj and private medical colleges across the state have to follow the order.
The order states that directions had come from the state medical education minister and the principal secretary during a video conference on May 26.