Introduction
A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was first reported
to the WHO Country Office in China on 31 December
2019.1 The causative agent was found to be severe
acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The outbreak was
declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by World
Health Organisation (WHO) on 30 January 2020.2 WHO
also advised about the possible modes of transmission and thereafter,
world-wide, different national governments have issued guidelines on how
to run the clinical practice with appropriate safety measures so that
the health professionals can be protected from the infection. Ministry
of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India (GoI) also
issued a guidance note on the subject.3 However, the
perception and practice at the ground level can be different. The
present paper is an attempt to capture the perceptions and practice of
those involved in delivering the care at the ground level in limited
resource settings.
Practice of Otorhinolaryngology (ORL) unarguably involves exposure to
the anatomical regions of the body with the highest viral
load.4 Fear of getting infected and attendant
morbidity and mortality are bound to affect the psyche of healthcare
workers,5,6 especially so in ORL.
Practice of medicine in a LMIC differs from those in developed nations
as public spending on health is less.7 Private sector
is usually the bigger healthcare provider and social security
penetration is not universal.8,9 These characteristics
make economic factors more important in healthcare delivery to masses.
After huge number of Covid-19 patients in China, Europe and United
States, the focus is now shifting to developing nations and counties
like Brazil and India are seeing a bigger and bigger surge of Covid-19
cases on daily basis.10 This is affecting the health
of healthcare service providers where apart from pandemic related
psychological stress as felt worldwide, economics of running the
clinical practice is also playing on the minds of healthcare
professionals. To do a ground check, authors decided to carry out an
online cross-sectional survey to assess the economic and psychological
impact of COVID 19 among different partners of ORL workforce in India; a
first of the kind in any of the LMIC.