A critical appraisal on the state of the health workforce during the COVID pandemic in India

Abstract

The pandemic of COVID is one of the greatest public health emergencies of current time. More than 200 countries got affected with this disease. Albeit the medical science has improved a lot along with the technological advancement, the pandemic hit hard on the health system throughout the globe. In some parts of the world, especially the developing world, the overburdened health system got more exacerbated owing to several of the health system issues or the building blocks and India is one such country which faced a lot of health system issues. One of the cardinal building blocks of the health system is the human resources for health or the health workforce that had to face serious challenges in the face of this pandemic. Apart from clinicians, there were other supporting staffs such as public health experts, epidemiologists, microbiologists, disease modeling experts, health communication experts, and many other frontline health workers (HWs) that got engaged in this pandemic. They had to face the pandemic very closely putting their own and family life at stake. The long and protracted working hours in hospital by putting personal protective equipment kit lead to mental health problems. Initially, the HWs faced stigma and discrimination and were labeled as spreaders of infection and were shunned by several communities. In addition to contraction of infection, stress, and burnout, the mortality was also seen to be relatively more among many of the HWs. Deployment and shifting of tasks became a regular phenomenon during the pandemic. Many states in India make provision to incentivize, motivate, award, and provide security to the HWs however that became miniscule in front of such a monstrous pandemic. This article critically analyzes the issues of health-care workers during the pandemic with special reference to India.