Dear Editor in Chief,
I read with great interest the article by Bhattacharya [1].
I would like to discuss about the speciality of ophthalmology—a surgical speciality in this letter with specific reference to the Indian scenario. Ophthalmology is predominantly a day surgery practice which needs constant inflow of patients. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has robbed us of our daily bread and butter. In a survey done in March, majority of the ophthalmologists in India were not seeing patients during the COVID-19 lockdown with near total cessation of elective surgeries and were unsure about resumption of surgeries after cessation of lockdown [2]. This may be true of almost all surgical specialties where day surgery is the norm. We explored the microcosm of a tertiary eye hospital detailing the impact on different strata of population including patients, their caregivers, hospital staff, consultants, and the management itself [3]. The cost for providing for the extra consumables during the COVID-19 pandemic also stresses us out and stretches our already dwindling resources.
A recent study published showed that COVID-19 would impact on their training or professional work; about a third had difficulty in meeting their living expenses and had some kind of depression, and this was significantly higher in younger ophthalmologists [4].
It is worthwhile exploring with our colleagues in psychological medicine to help us all to steer our ship out of the storm we are now facing. A unified approach from the Medical Council of India or the Ministry of Health would certainly go a long way to assure us of that support.
References
Bhattacharya K (2020) Surgeon’s COVID-19 traumatic stress disorder. Indian J Surg. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-020-02504-4
Nair AG, Gandhi RA, Natarajan S (2020) Effect of COVID-19 related lockdown on ophthalmic practice and patient care in India: results of a survey. Indian J Ophthalmol 68:725–730
Sanjay S, Garg A, Shetty R, Shetty N, Shetty BK (2020) Impact of COVID-19 on a tertiary eye hospital. Indian J Ophthalmol 68:1485–1486
Khanna RC, Honavar SG, Metla AL, Bhattacharya A, Maulik PK (2020) Psychological impact of COVID-19 on ophthalmologists-in-training and practising ophthalmologists in India. Indian J Ophthalmol 68:994–998
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Srinivasan, S. Reply to Letter to Editor “Consequences of a COVID-19 Pandemic on Ophthalmologists”. Indian J Surg 83, 383 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-020-02519-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-020-02519-x