People suffering from diseases other than Covid-19 are facing a crisis because a large number of doctors, many of whom have contracted the coronavirus or been deployed in Covid wards, are staying away from their chambers and polyclinics.

Unavailability of doctors have been causing inconvenience to patients since the Covid-19 pandemic started. But now the problem has taken a different dimension, said doctors and officials running polyclinics.

Many doctors are getting infected by the coronavirus or are being forced to go into quarantine after coming in contact with Covid patients, making them unavailable at clinics. There are others who are working in Covid wards and so are unable to see other patients, many of whom are suffering from chronic ailments and are under regular treatment.

Many doctors, however, are attending OPDs at hospitals because they feel safety protocols are better followed there than smaller chambers and clinics.

Adding to the patients’ woes, many clinics are giving appointments to only a few in a week because of shortage of space and doctors. Some clinics are still shut because doctors are staying away.

Officials of private healthcare institutes said most doctors are attending OPDs and are insisting that their patients go there for consultations. But many patients are reluctant to go to the hospitals because they are scared of getting infected. They prefer to meet their doctors in smaller clinics near their houses.

A woman who is in her 20th week of pregnancy had wanted an appointment with her gynaecologist last week. The doctor told her the polyclinic in south Calcutta where the woman used to go for regular check-ups was closed and asked her to meet him at a hospital off EM Bypass.

“Doctors say pregnant women are vulnerable to Covid and so she did not want to go for her check-up at the hospital, where hundreds of Covid patients are admitted. But because the doctor is not seeing patients at the clinic, she is consulting him over the phone,” said a relative of the woman.

A 72-year-old woman often suffers from electrolyte imbalance (abnormal levels of sodium and potassium in blood). Whenever the imbalance occurs, her physician gets her admitted to a nursing home, said a relative.

Last week, the woman had a similar problem and the doctor was not taking calls. “When her son went to the doctor’s home, he asked him to take the lady somewhere else. He said he was visiting neither the nursing home nor the polyclinic he was attached to,” the relative said.

Private hospitals that run polyclinics said several such facilities were still not functioning.

The Narayana Health group runs a polyclinic on Sarat Bose Road. “We have opened the clinic but barely 10 per cent doctors are going there and that too for only a couple of days. Also, because of space constraints, we are unable to give appointments to many patients,” said R. Venkatesh, director, eastern region of Narayana Health.

The owner of a polyclinic in Narendrapur said barely 50 per cent of the doctors were coming to the clinic because several were affected by Covid-19.

Even in some of the clinics where most doctors are turning up, not many patients are being given appointments.

“Because of space constraints and to maintain the norms of social distancing, we cannot accommodate every-one at the same time like before. Patients are being asked to sit inside, while those accompanying them have to wait outside for their turns,” said surgical oncologist Gautam Mukhopadhyay, who is also the secretary of Bengal Oncology Foundation that runs a cancer clinic in south Calcutta.

“Because of bad weather during this time of the year, we cannot make so many people wait outside. So, we have restricted the number of appointments,” he said.