Doctors should constantly communicate with their loved ones to cope up with stress during COVID-19 pandemic
Dr Sunita Dube, Radiologist & Healthcare Entrepreneur, who launched the ‘We Doctors’ campaign with her MedscapeIndia team, aims to help the ground people especially affected by the virus, simultaneously helping the doctors by acquiring and providing them with safety gadgets like the PPE kit, sanitizers, masks, etc. Dr Dubey reveals more about the campaign in an interaction with Sanjiv Das
How is the ‘We Doctors’ campaign going to benefit doctors during the COVID-19 crisis?
Today what the nation needs the most is its doctors. No matter in which part of the country the doctors reside they have been working endlessly to fight COVID-19. We began the ‘We Doctors’ campaign keeping this in mind. The aim of this campaign is to help the ground people especially affected by the virus, simultaneously helping the doctors by acquiring and providing them with safety gadgets like the PPE kit, sanitizers, masks, etc.
‘We Doctors’ is a platform that is a voice of doctors, it speaks for the doctors and the issues faced by them on various fronts. To help them financially, we are trying to get better insurance deals for the doctors and other health workers who are working endlessly and putting their life on risk in order to help people get better.
Apart from this, we are continuously hosting various virtual classes, webinars, and educational programs that can help the doctors on all fronts.
How many doctors have enrolled for the campaign and in which cities? What has been the feedback from the doctors?
MedscapeIndia is a brainchild of Aryan Medical & Educational Trust and is a non-profit organisation working relentlessly towards community welfare since 2011. Medscape India has worked for various awareness campaigns such as Save the Girl Child, HIV Awareness, Preventive medical camps, breast cancer awareness, FIT INDIA campaign and many more.
Recently, Medscape India came up with the ‘We Doctors’ campaign to help the community during the crisis of COVID-19. We have had more than 5000 highly acclaimed doctors from the various parts of the country like Delhi, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra, etc who are associated with MedscapeIndia.
Doctors from all around the world are still enrolling with ‘We Doctors’ campaign through our website or other platforms like WhatsApp and they are contributing for free in order to help people in need. The doctors associated with this campaign are very positive and happy as the response has been very good considering we haven’t had the time to do proper marketing, the doctors look forward to helping the government and as many people they can.
What safety measures would you like to suggest for the doctors who are treating COVID-19 patients?
For all the healthcare warriors I strongly suggest they look after their health which apart from taking precautions include having proper meals regularly and consuming food and drinks that help boost the immune system. This time is emotionally challenging for all the doctors as they have to deal with the patients with very chronic diseases and seeing people die in front of you every day tends to take a toll on mental wellbeing.
I suggest that doctors should constantly communicate with their loved ones because that really helps in coping up with stress. Also, taking time to rest is very important in order to deal with the copious amount of work they have to do every day.
Post-COVID lockdown, what will be your strategies for the medical fraternity?
Post-COVID, we are going to face tremendous challenges. A lot of hospitals and clinics might end up with a financial burden like loans in order to buy equipment that will now be mandatory. Counselling the doctors that have to face this pressure and supporting them emotionally and mentally will be our first priority.
Our focus will also be on getting better insurance deals for them which would help with their financial crisis. Post-COVID life will not be the same for doctors. A lot of things will have changed, more importance will be given to things which weren’t very important before.
We aim at giving guidance to the doctors on the proper use of technology which will help them continue their practice efficiently.
As a woman radiologist and an entrepreneur, what challenges do you face while working in a male bastion in the healthcare industry?
Women in all the communities have had to face a lot of problems no matter who they are or where they belong. Over the years, discrimination against women has decreased in the medical fraternity. But still the number of female doctors when it comes to leadership is very less when compared to the number of male doctors.
The medical fraternity is known for its competitive environment but when you are a practising radiologist who is an entrepreneur running a company along with a nonprofit organisation there is hardly time to compete with anyone.
I believe in keeping my focus completely on bettering myself, my projects and trying to help the community. When you are focussed on better things there is hardly any time for a competition.
Women are often judged before being accepted in the community. What bothers me the most is that during the judgment process we often lose sight of the dynamic personality a woman has and the contribution she can make to society with her amazing qualities.