The Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar administration July 6 asked doctors and nurses of a private hospital to return to work in three days, failing which cases will be lodged against them.

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They had quit their job amid the coronavirus outbreak. According to officials, the administration warned the registration of FIR against four doctors and 40 nurses of Greater Noida's Sharda Hospital, one of the biggest dedicated facilities for COVID-19 treatment in the district. Sources, however, said the number of doctors and nurses who left the job amid the coronavirus outbreak is seven, four of them anaesthetits, and 55, respectively, and the attrition began in May end.

An FIR will be registered against doctors and nurses who are leaving job during COVID-19 and action ensured against them. The four doctors and 40 nurses of the Sharda Hospital have been given necessary instructions over leaving their jobs, the administration said in a statement on July 6. The administration has asked them to resume work in three days after which it will proceed with action against them, including an FIR under the Epidemic Diseases Act, according to the officials.

The statement was issued after a review meeting attended by the Additional Chief Secretary, Health Education Department; the Gautam Buddh Nagar; the district's nodal officer for COVID-19 response and other senior officials.

The hospital, run by Sharda University, currently has around 115 patients undergoing treatment for COVID-19, and the doctors and nurses quit work perhaps due to increased work, its spokesperson said. During the July 6 meeting, the administration also assured providing 10 more ventilators to the only L-3 category hospital of the district and also asked it to set up more intensive care units (ICU), he said.

Once we get 10 more ventilators, our ventilator strength would rise to 30, while we currently have 30 ICUs and 30 more are to be added soon. The hospital currently has 400 beds, 200 of them for L-2 category and 200 for L-3, and the administration has asked us to increase strength to 650 beds, he told PTI.

The state-run Government Institute of Medical Sciences in Greater Noida and the Child PGI in Noida, two other major COVID facilities in the district are L-2 category, officials said. Gautam Buddh Nagar has nearly 1,000 active cases of COVID-19 and has so far recorded 2,765 such cases, the highest in the state, according to latest available official figures.