The current coronavirus second wave situation is a disaster and there is a need for lakhs of doctors and nurses across India, said Viren Shetty, executive director & group COO of Narayana Health in an interview to CNBC-TV18.
“We need lakhs of doctors, healthcare workers and nurses across the country. So many of them are stuck in study hall studying for entrance exams that they may or may not pass. Why? When instead of being with a book they can be with the patient. Obviously, they are not fully qualified, they have not dealt with COVID patients before but they are a valuable help because doctors are exhausted in our network and hospitals across the country. Anyone who can come and do simple admiration of the patient, taking the charting, taking the notes, doing the rounds will be extremely useful,” he said.
He further said that the hospitals are dealing with hundreds of patients in the large public health system in small towns in India that only have one or two doctors monitoring everyone.
On vaccination, he said, “Trained nurses or young medical graduates can be in the field doing vaccination because there is a huge amount of hesitancy out there and so if allowed to vaccinate people at their home, in schools, in offices will be great, we can vaccinate the whole country in a matter of months before the third wave.”
For the entire interview, watch the video