Tirunelveli: Covid ward staff demand self-isolation facility to save family

TIRUNELVELI/TENKASI: Doctors and nurses in Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH) and Government Headquarters Hospital (GHQH), Tenkasi, on Monday, demanded an isolation facility for themselves so that they could go under quarantine after completing their duty. They stated that their family members would become vulnerable to the virus as they have to go home daily after work.

Speaking to Express, a doctor who works on Covid duty in TvMCH said it would be helpful if the State government would allot funds for accommodation of Covid ward staff including doctors, nurses, and hospital workers.

“After the completion of our duty at the hospital, we have to go home and mingle with our family members and neighbours. The State government should consider accommodating us in a hotel at least for seven days after our duty, as it did during the first wave of the virus,” he added.

An office bearer of the Tamil Nadu Government Nurses Association stated that most of the family members of hospital workers are yet to take the Covid vaccination.

“Unlike the family members of doctors and nurses, the kin of hospital workers are afraid to take the jab. They are mostly breadwinners of their families and have to perform all the family duties including purchase of vegetables and groceries. The TvMCH’s old building has been turned into a Covid ward with about 1,000 beds. If those who are working in this ward are allowed to go home, the spread of disease may intensify,” she claimed.

When contacted by Express, an authority of GHQH said they were waiting for funds from the State government to avail the quarantine facility for Covid ward staff. “However, since most of the family members of these staff have already taken the vaccine, we hope they wouldn’t be more vulnerable to the virus. This time, our priority is to save public lives in the second wave,” he added.