‘Not worth the risk’: Why a junior doctor in Delhi quit her job at a makeshift Covid-19 facility

On May 2, the Central government decided to postpone entrance exams to postgraduate medical courses by four months to encourage recently graduated medical students to take up Covid-19 duties in hospitals.

The next day, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, which is run by the Delhi government, announced it was looking to hire 146 junior doctors to work at a 500-bedded makeshift facility at Ramleela ground. It said the junior doctors would be hired on a contract for “short term and emergent basis initially for 89 days”.

Delhi had witnessed a tsunami of Covid-19 in April that had overburdened its health systems, with patients dying at home and hospital lobbies, as they were unable to find vacant beds. To ramp up capacity, Delhi government had started setting up makeshift facilities, but it also needed an additional number of doctors and healthcare workers to run them.

A 23-year old medical graduate in Delhi, who did not wish to be identified, decided to apply for the job. “The whole year has been so overwhelming for healthcare workers,” said the doctor who had graduated in January from Maulana Azad Medical College. “Without any doubt, the one sentiment that took over was to actively participate in this war against the virus and help…

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