Inadequate facilities, stigma, low salaries, even violence—resident doctors posted on Covid-19 duty battle every day atrocities and work without recognition, but form the most important pillar of a hospital
A group of residents doctors at Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi
Just having completed a rigorous 12-hour shift, Dr Prerna Tayal needs to recoup, and requests that we do the interview later. The 26-year-old is a third-year post-graduate gynaecologist, working as a resident doctor at the Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi. Her shift done, Tayal doffs her personal protective equipment (PPE), sanitises everything, especially her pruney hands, and heads back home. It takes 45 minutes for Tayal to drive from the hospital to her Dwarka home. Things are not the same once she gets there, however. Straight away, Tayal isolates herself in a separate room, and has made it mandatory for her parents and younger brother to put on N95 masks when she is in the house.