Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Indian Cares launched a health helpline which is a voluntary initiative to help people during the Covid pandemic nationwide. Through this helpline, people can consult doctors for free from different parts of the country.
According to the organisation’s official statement, anyone who wants to consult a doctor can contact through the helpline or can send a direct message on Twitter to @indiacares_2020. The organisation will connect to one. Currently, 19 doctors from different parts of the country are a part of the initiative to help people through the helpline. Each of them has agreed to attend to the queries every day for one hour over the phone and they will either speak directly to the people or via conference calls during which, the officials of India Cares will be present.
The organisation further stated that three to four volunteers of India Cares are monitoring the messages from people through the Twitter handle requesting for conversation with the doctors. After the conversations are made with the doctors, an appointment is fixed for the patients.
As per the report, the organisation has a strong network of over 1,200 volunteers in the country and abroad who are helping people in getting admission to Covid hospitals, arranging plasma and Covid-19 medicines.
As per an official of Indian Care which was formed by Senior IPS officer Arun Bothra informed that some of the doctors are already volunteers of the organisation and the organisation have approached few others requesting them to answer the queries of the citizens regarding Covid and other problems.
The doctors who have been deployed in different districts for COVID-19 duty will face action under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Section 7 of Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.
With the rising cases of Covid in the state Director Medical Education and Training Prof CBK Mohanty stated that many doctors who are temporarily assigned or posted for management of COVID under the jurisdiction of CDM & PHOs, are not joining duty.
The Odisha government has directed all the doctors who have been posted on COVID-19 management duty to join their places of deployment, failing which it has warned of taking necessary action against them.
In an official order, the Directorate of Medical Education and Training has stated that it is seen that in the present COVID-19 pandemic, which has been declared as a national disaster, several doctors temporarily posted for management of COVID-19 duty in different districts are not joining their places of deployment. It has put a hardship on the district administration to fight the pandemic.
Under the circumstances, all doctors who have been issued deployment order under different CDM & PHO are directed to join their places of deployment immediately in the public interest, failing which action, as deemed proper under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Section 7 of Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, will be taken, the order stated.
As per Section 65 of the Disaster Management Act 2005, the state authority or district authority or any officer as may be authorised may requisition such resources, persons, needed for the purpose of the rescue operation.
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