India is battling the second pandemic wave which is more intense than the first one especially since it has spread to the villages. India’s rural population is 65.53 percent of India’s total population as last reported in 2019. Among the blame game between the Centre and States on vaccines, government says all Indians will be vaccinated by end of the year, judiciary seems unconvinced and posts on social media are lambasting the judiciary for overstepping – typical scenario in India.
Vietnam has reported a much more virulent strain of the virus and Britain is in the early stages of the third pandemic wave. A recent report warns a third wave in India that will possibly be as severe as the second wave. The report goes on to say that the third wave may last for 98 days. The magical figure of 98 days presumably is on the premise that the China Virus will not mutate into more virulent strains. This may be wishful thinking. The third wave overlapping the second wave that we are still combating too remains a possibility.
The DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) acted with alacrity to help fight the second pandemic wave by establishing six hospitals for Covid-19 patients at Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Patna, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. These locations were apparently chosen by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) based on political considerations. It is commendable that these facilities were set up speedily with no shortages and high quality medical equipment. DRDO could establish these from scratch through turnkey contracts awarded to external vendors using unaudited funds, which are always in abundance. The same funds could have been used easily to hire adequate number of civil-government and civilian doctors in stations where these DRDO hospitals have been set up to take on the load at least partially if not fully. However, MoD ordered the military to man these hospitals. Like the DRDO the Medical Branch of the Army is directly under the MoD. This is despite having created a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and a Department of Military Affairs (DMA). The CDS is also the Secretary of the DMA.
Hence, manpower from all Zonal and Command Hospitals less Northern Command has been pooled for the six DRDO hospitals. The Navy has reportedly not provided any doctors taking the stand they don’t have enough to run their own hospitals. The Air Force has provided manpower from Bengaluru. Specialist training of officers at the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) has been curtailed, which is long-term detriment of the organization as these officers have missed out on nearly a year of training from their three year Advance Course.
Total number of medical staff provided to DRDO facilities is not known but about 200 doctors, some 80 nurses and about 150-200 medical and technical personnel other than officers are deployed in the DRDO hospitals at Varanasi and Lucknow alone. The overall medical staff for the six hospitals therefore may be roughly three times the numbers mentioned here. Zonal and Command Hospitals have had to pull out even specialists and super specialists to provide support to these DRDO hospitals. Nearly 50 percent of the clinical specialists barring a skeleton crew to hold the fort have been deployed from Command Hospitals to staff these hospitals. Reportedly, Doctors of the Army Dental Corps (ADC) too have been roped in to man the Covid Wards of Military Hospitals!
The Army Medical Corps (AMC) already stretched in specialist and super specialist capability in military hospitals is left with no depth in reserves. In addition, the station medical cover has been hit for serving personnel, their families, veterans and dependents. The double whammy is the pandemic coupled with shifting away of specialist and super specialist cadre officers from their regular work. News reports of last month had reported that more than 5,000 Army soldiers are battling Covid-19 in hospitals. This may be upwards of 7-8000 presently considering our bulk troops are from rural areas, and these figures do not include their families.
China attacked India last year capitalising on the first wave of Wuhan Virus. While India is prepared for any further PLA mischief China for which it has pumped in more advanced weaponry into the region. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call for China to portray a “loveable” face is more of a ruse. It is not without reason that Chinese maps are not showing Ladakh as part of India. 16 Chinese fighter aircraft recently intruded into Malaysian airspace as the whole country was going into lockdown mode. China could do more offensive actions against India this summer maybe in Ladakh, elsewhere or both areas as also in Bhutan. This would be even bigger certainty as and when the third wave hits India.
While the policy makers are sanguine about our operational preparedness, requisite medical cover for conflict too needs to be ensured. This time the conflict maybe intense, even if short duration, as China would likely try out its latest weaponry to include long range strikes, AI, drones and the like.Northern Command by itself may not be able to take on the entire load of casualties.
The MoD has now reportedly directed that these DRDO hospitals will continue to be manned by the military for another six months. This is not likely to be the only extension as the pandemic is not likely to disappear that easily. These hospitals may continue even after the third wave gets over, whenever that happens and provided there is no fourth wave which Japan is already suffering. Moreover, considering the paucity of health infrastructure in the country, it would be prudent to let these hospitals continue as general hospitalseven after the pandemic eventually leaves India.
There is no doubt that we are fighting a biological war and Armed Forces must join the nation in combating the pandemic. This they have already demonstrated with full dedication; manning theDRDO hospitals; providing 18 officers and 116 personnel below officer rank from Army’s Remount Veterinary Corps (RVC) to provide administrative staff for civil hospitals, treating civilian Covid-19 casualties, naval warships and air force aircraft bringing emergency equipment post haste from foreign countries despite civil aircraft and merchant ships available on call.
However, in view of the operational imperatives mentioned above, it is time for the policy makers to commence relieving the military staff from the six DRDO hospitals, replacing them by civilian doctors outsourced by the DRDO for latter should have no dearth of finances. Here the issue is not only operational preparedness but it is also linked to the morale of troops.
The Defence Minster needs to reflect on the long term effects of continued deployment of medical staff by the military in these six DRDO hospitals, which by the looks of it will continue for another 12 months at a conservative estimate.
