UP doctor claims has corona, resigns

A doctor posted at a primary health centre in Dhaurhara tehsil of Lakhimpur district has 'resigned', claiming that he has "contracted coronavirus".

In his resignation letter to the Chief Medical Officer, the doctor Neelesh Kumar Maurya posted at  Ranjeetganj PHC, said that he had examined nearly 60 migrant labourers on March 30, without following personal safety guidelines due to limited facilities available at the centre.

He started developing Covid-19 symptoms. He did not want to infect anyone else, so he was quarantined himself and added that he will not be able to continue his services as a medical officer.

Lakhimpur CMO Manoj Agarwal, however, accused the doctor of "shirking from his responsibility in this hour of crisis".

The CMO said: "If he is infected, his samples could have been sent for test, but he did not ask for it."

So far, one corona positive case has been reported in Lakhimpur district, and the patient is being treated in Lucknow.

The CMO said: "He knows it well that the CMO is not the competent authority to accept resignation. He had dodged his responsibilities as a medical officer in the past as well. Ideally, he should have contacted us and we would have sent his samples for the Corona test.  He has left the PHC without any notice."

Agarwal also denied the doctor's claim that he did not get protective gear while treating migrant laborers. "We are working to provide safety kits to all medical staff deployed in the district," the CMO said.