The lone nurse in a primary health centre attending to a child under Mon district.
KU asks govt to fill up existing vacancies
Morung Express News
Mon | May 13
The Konyak Union Mon has brought notice to the acute shortage of manpower in health care units across Mon district amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and called upon the State Government to alleviate this concern.
It submitted a memorandum to the Principal Secretary of Health & Family Welfare, Nagaland urging the department to fill existing vacancies in health units across Mon district.
The Konyak Union provided details about manpower shortage in the district and demanded that the government fill up the minimum required posts. The vacancies have been created by staff in Mon who had either retired, were attached out, transferred out without replacement, or the post had never been filled.
It informed that a total of 30 regular staff have been transferred without replacement and 19 National Health Mission (NHM) staff have been transferred or have resigned without replacement.
Projecting the minimum staff requirements in all levels of the Health centers, the letter insisted that the Konyak Union’s 5 point charter of demand be addressed immediately “in order to avoid any human negligence in the future”.
According to the data provided by the Konyak Union, Mon district at the moment requires 3 Senior Medical Officers, 7 Medical Officers, 4 MO AYUSH, 2 Dental MOs, 15 GNMs, 65 ANMs, 9 Pharmacists, 11 Lab Technicians, and 28 4th grade staff.
Speaking to The Morung Express, General Secretary of the Konyak Union, Wango Konyak explained that although they understood that there was acute shortage of manpower in the entire state, Mon district is the worst affected district, even though it is one of the most populous and largest districts.
“While most sub centres in other districts have as many as 3 to 6 nurses, pharmacists and many 4th grade staff, some Primary Health Centres in Mon don’t even have one nurse or pharmacist or doctor and are functioning with just a few 4th grade staff,” he highlighted.
The memorandum informed that 17 Hhealth units were functioning with no regular nurse and only one NHM nurse on adjustment; and 8 health units were being expected to function without any nurse, neither NHM nor regular.
“We are not asking for much more than the government can provide,” Wango said iterating that the KU had projected on the basis of the minimum requirement of two nurses and two 4th grade staff per sub center; and 1 doctor, 3 nurses, 1 pharmacist and 1 lab technician per Primary Health Center.
He continued that the government need not even make fresh appointment for this. “They just need to make adjustment and relocate from health units of other district which was functioning with excess manpower,” he said.
The General Secretary stated that the district had been patient for a long time believing the reassurances of the department but were disappointed every time. Sometimes few appointments would be made and widely published but most of these staff appointed to Mon are made with attachments to other district or they are on study leave. The rest of the staff work for a few months; then they are transferred out to other districts without replacement, it was informed.
He added that even in the midst of the pandemic many nurses and pharmacists are being transferred out without any replacement and a large number of health units were left to function without manpower.
Wango Konyak carried on to state that it was understandable that staff from other districts found it problematic to work in Mon, but there were Konyak boys and girls trained as nurses and pharmacists and lab technicians who were willing to work in the district.
“Last year in the beginning of the pandemic we had even submitted their documents for recruiting them on contractual basis under NHM but there is no response till now,” he lamented.
The memorandum stated that even after the first wave of the pandemic had caught everyone unprepared last year, the health system in the district was still in a deplorable shape and that almost all the health units were managing without sufficient manpower.
In the present scenario, it stated that Mon district would witness an uncontrollable situation when the 2nd and 3rd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hits the district.
