Kerala: Cold response to drive for temporary medical staff

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government's move to create temporary three-month posts for the health service to tackle monsoon-related diseases, along with Covid-19, has not been well received. Only 480 have answered the call for 742 doctors, so far.
The government also decided to recruit house surgeons from government medical colleges for three-month duty at primary and community health centres.Even though the appointments were made, the 1,260 house surgeons won't be able to join the service pending their registration process.
Among the 480 doctors, a few have already left the job after they were put on checkpost duty to screen people coming from other states. For the specialist posts, there has been a tepid response.
"There are reports that the government order has been received well in just a few districts. The state at present needs more health services employees since along with Covid-19 we are seeing increasing number of dengue and leptospirosis cases. The entire machinery is now engaged in Covid prevention activities. These three months, till August, will be crucial for the state's primary health care sector,'' said Dr G S Vijayakrishnan, general secretary of Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA).
The temporary posts were created under the National Health Mission and district officials have been tasked with recruitment. It is learnt that only Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kannur, Ernakulam and Thrissur were close to meeting expectations. It was in the first week of May that the government decided to create the posts of doctors, specialists, dental surgeons, staff nurses, nursing assistants, junior health inspectors (JHIs) and junior public health nurses (JPHNs) to tackle monsoon-related diseases.
"The biggest shortage is in the primary level where we need more JHIs and JPHNs. The government sanctioned 1,259 JHI and 741 JPHN posts. But the response has been cold. For us, who are tackling Covid as well as the seasonal epidemic threat, this is proving to be a very heavy load,'' a JHI said.
At present, the state has 3,443 JHIs against the sanctioned strength of 3,633. Similarly, the state has 5,301 JPHNs who have been deputed for monitoring people under home and institutional quarantine.