Health staff face social boycott even after warnings from chief minister

Biswabrata Goswami

Statesman News Service

MIDNAPORE, 13 APRIL: More than a hundred health staff attached to a private nursing home in Midnapore town are facing social boycott from their native villagers who suspect them of carrying novel coronavirus after being exposed to a Covid-19 positive patient.

This incident came into the light at a time when the chief minister Mamata Banerjee has recently asked her administration to ensure that doctors, nurses and health workers battling the spread of the dreaded virus do not face any discrimination.

“I am asking the administration to ensure that doctors, nurses and health workers don’t face any problem. They should not face social boycott. They are fighting to prevent the spread of the virus and it is our responsibility to ensure proper security for them,” the chief minister said after a meeting with top government officials at Nabanna in recent times.

Trouble broke out a few days ago when an elderly man tested positive for Covid-19 at Kalinga Hospital in Odisha. Before it, he was admitted in a private hospital in Midnapore town with other ailments. As his condition was not improving, his members took him away to the Kalinga hospital in Odisha where he tested positive for Covid-19.

Soon after the news spread, the West Midnapore district health department immediately swung into action and sealed the nursing home. The administration also sent 19 health staff including some doctors and nursing staff in a quarantine center for observation. Later, the reports of all samples taken from these health staffs found negative for Covid-19.

“But, as the nursing home has been closed for a temporary period, the health employees sought to go to their houses. The problem aroused when the villagers disallowed them to get entry into their houses. A total of 127 health staff hailed from different parts of the district including the district headquarters could not go to their houses as the local residents didn’t allow them to get entry into their locality. The local residents suspect they are carrying coronavirus as they were exposed to a Covid-19 positive patient”, said Partha Mondol, one of the directors of the nursing home.

“Among them, many staff reside either in different municipal wards or in the outskirts of the town. My housemaid, who is not attached with the nursing home, has not been allowed to go to her house even. So, we have kept all our staff in the nursing home premises and they are being provided foods and other essential things”, Mr Mondol said.

When asked, Dr Girish Chandra Bera, chief medical officer of health said, “This type of social boycott should not happen. These health staff are not only the victims; many of our health employees have faced the same consequences. I have asked the district police to look into this matter and conduct an awareness programme so that local residents are not unnecessarily panicked and they do not indulge in social boycott”.   

Mr Dinesh Kumar, superintendent of police, however, said he will take stringent action against those who will discriminate against any health staff or his/her family members in the society.