The coronavirus disease (CoVID-19) pandemic has quickly spread to various countries. As on May 8th, 2020, in India 56342 positive cases of corona had been reported. India with a population of more than 1-35 billion had difficulty in controlling the transmission of coronavirus among its population. Multiple strategies became necessary to handle this outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India raised awareness about this outbreak and took all necessary actions to control the spread of COVID-19. Indian Government implemented a 55-day lockdown throughout the country to reduce the transmission of the virus. Schools and colleges had shifted to an alternative mode of teaching- learning-evaluation and certification. Online mode became popular during these days. India was not prepared for a sudden onslaught of such a crisis due to limited infrastructure in terms of human resource, money and other facilities needed for taking care of this situation. This disease did not spare anybody irrespective of caste, creed, religion on the one hand and have and have not’ on the other. Deficiencies in hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, ambulances, hospital staff and crematorium were the most crucial aspects You are a hospital administrator in a public hospital at the time when coronavirus had attacked large number of people and patients were pouring into hospital day in and day out.1) What are your criteria and justification for putting your clinical and non-clinical staff to attend to the patients knowing fully well that it is highly infectious disease and resources and infrastructure are limited?2) If yours is a private hospital, whether your justification and decision would remain same as that of a public hospital?
What the examiner wants
As a public hospital administrator during COVID-19, set criteria to deploy staff fairly under risk, and say if a private hospital would differ.
Demand-wise check
- 1(a) Criteria: skills and need, staff health risk (age, comorbidity), rotation and rest, protective equipment, voluntary first, fairness and transparency; triage for patients≈65 words
- 2Justification: duty of care, utility (save most lives), justice, protecting staff to keep the system running≈65 words
- 3(b) Private hospital: same ethical duty to patients and staff; but profit motive must not decide access; Epidemic Diseases Act obligations; price caps≈65 words
Open in about 30 words and close in about 30.
Answer plan
Where marks usually go
- Only patient triage, ignoring staff deployment
- Saying a private hospital can follow profit-first criteria
Draw this
- Criteria table with weightage
Value addition
- LawEpidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020 made violence against health workers punishable with up to 7 years' imprisonment.Epidemic Diseases Amendment 2020
- GuidelineICMR's National Guidelines for Ethics Committees (2020) on research and care during COVID-19 stress fairness and protection of the vulnerable.ICMR
Mapped topper copies
Reviewed public-source references related to this PYQ. Same-syllabus references are labelled separately.
- Aakash Garg · AIR 5 · Page 37 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 35 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 39 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Aakash Garg · AIR 5 · Page 33 ↗Same syllabus reference
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